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A Few Clouds Leukemia survivor celebrated by fellow Girl Scouts in Valley Stream
'Courageous Camila' walk honored bravery of Camila Raza
Throughout her battle with leukemia, Camila Raza’s friends in Girl Scout Troop 2073 made sure she never faced the disease alone. The troop organized a walk for her at Wheeler Avenue School on Sept. 30 to honor her bravery.
Students, teachers, school administrators and parents donned orange T-shirts and carried hand-made signs of support. The event not only honored Camila, but recognized Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Leukemia Awareness Month.
Camila, who’s now 10, was diagnosed with leukemia in July 2015, shortly after she finished third grade. She was made an honorary member of Troop 2073 when she was sick, but now her cancer is in remission.
The troop’s support of Camila is nothing new, according to her mother, Nancy. “The whole last year, when she wasn’t in school, they would send her messages,” she said. “And they would send her arts and crafts to do at the hospital. It just kept her involved.”
Nancy, a schoolteacher in Brooklyn, and her husband, Ali, who works in real estate, adopted Camila from Guatemala when she was 16 months old. Then they adopted her sister, Sofia, from China, when she was 4. The family was rocked when the doctor revealed Camila’s diagnosis, but her friends have played a big role in keeping her spirits up.
“She was really devastated after she lost her hair,” Ali Raza said, noting that she still has a year left of treatments. “So she wanted to wear a wig, and she was afraid about how her friends were going to see her. It was amazing. When she first saw her friends face to face, they didn’t even see her head. They were like, ‘So you don’t have hair, no big deal.’ So she only wore the wig for maybe a couple of days, and then the wig just went in the closet and she was fine with it.”
The idea for the walk across the school was in the works for months. Though inclement weather kept the event indoors, there was no shortage of excitement among the children, who chanted “Courageous Camila!” as they made their way through the hallways.
“They worked very hard over the summer doing research, and they decided to do a Courageous Camila Walk,” said Elizabeth Stevens, chair of association volunteers for the Valley Stream Girl Scouts.
The troop mostly includes students from Wheeler Avenue, and when they approached Principal Gayle Steele about the idea, she made it a schoolwide event.
“This is really what it’s all about,” Steele said. “When you see stuff like this come back to you through the kids, it’s a reminder that this is what we’re in it for. It’s not about reading, writing and arithmetic all the time. It’s about teaching them how to be humans, and the human spirit, and how to care for each other. It’s very, very touching to see it come back to you that way.”
After everything she has endured, Camila was delighted about the event. “I’m happy,” she said. “I love being with my friends.”
