Established in 1993, Founder Margaret Kennedy created the organization in tribute to her friend Tim Falvey. Falvey, struggling with cancer himself, originally founded “Dream Day on the Sound” in Connecticut and before he died in May 1993 he had hoped there would be other Dream Days.
Kennedy carried that hope forward. Drawing on the support of friends, colleagues, and dedicated volunteers, Kennedy made that hope a reality. Seventeen years later, Dream Day on Cape Cod has served hundreds of seriously ill children and their families.
Dream Day’s early days were at the Riverview School in Sandwich, Massachusetts.
In 1999 an opportunity opened up for us to lease a camp property in Brewster – on the site of an old campfire girls’ camp. Converting the property to meet the needs of Dream Day families was a challenge and accomplishment met with tremendous support. We built our 9 new cabins at the camp in a one day event dubbed the “Contractor Challenge”. More than 150 people worked to do an old-fashioned barn-raising – with cabins rising out of the woods by day’s end.
In 2008, our 10-year lease was up and we had the opportunity to purchase the land and at last call our special camp our own. Our landlord – the Cape Cod Camp Corporation made a partial donation and an anonymous donor came forward with the remaining purchase price. Owning the 17-plus acres of land will now open up doors of opportunity. Organization officials are meeting with master planners and drafting the physical map, helping realize all of the goals within strategic plan. Plans are presently being laid for a capital campaign. Needless to say, we are thrilled.
