KOA Offers Campers Free Night while Helping Kids with Cancer

KOA Offers Campers Free Night while Helping Kids with Cancer

For More Information, Contact:
Mike Gast
Vice President of Communications
Kampgrounds of America, Inc.
406-254-7409
mgast@koa.net

6th Annual "Come Kamp and Care With Us Weekend" event May 8 & 9

BILLINGS, MT

(January 8, 2009) - Hundreds of Kampgrounds of America campgrounds across the U.S. and Canada are preparing for the 6th Annual "Come Kamp and Care With Us" weekend event, May 8 and 9, 2009. Campers who make reservations at participating KOA Kampgrounds pay for only Friday, May 8 and camp for free on Saturday, May 9 at nearly 400 participating KOA Kampgrounds in North America. Each KOA Kampground holds its own fun, fundraising activities on the campgrounds that include auctions, crafts, games, and more.

"We look forward to this weekend in May, when we begin the camping season with an affordable event that brings families and friends together in safe, healthy, outdoor settings. It allows all of us to contribute to a program that means so much for these deserving kids who are facing the fight of their lives," says KOA President and Chief Operating Officer, Shane Ott. Ott is also on the board of directors of Camp Mak-A-Dream, a KOA Care Camp in Missoula, Montana.

KOA Care Camps are a network of 41 independent, specialized camps for children under treatment or in recovery from cancer, and their siblings. "Helping kids experience the camaraderie and fun of the outdoors with other cancer patients is in complete alignment with the mission of KOA, the goals of our KOA Owners Association, and is the very nature of what we do," says Ott.

The KOA Owners Association created the KOA Care Camps Trust in 1984 and raised $8,000 that year. In 2008, the KOA Care Camps Trust's total donation was just over $250,000, from the combined efforts of nearly 14,000 camping families who stayed more than 32,000 nights at 370 KOA locations, along with matching funds from the KOA Holdings Board of Directors.

Reservations for the May 8-9 "Come Kamp and Care With Us" event can be made online at KOA.com. Search by either state, province or zip code and choose from the campgrounds that are participating in the event. A list of participating campground will also be available on KOA.com when reservations are available, beginning February 1.

"This is a great event for our campers, because we're sure to have a KOA close to wherever they live," Ott said. "Camping with family and friends in May at a wonderful KOA locatino just down the road from home is a great way to get the summer started."

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