Our Mission
The Me-One Foundation is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to providing adult cancer patients and their families a respite from the disease.
Our purpose is to provide families with activities and events to promote courage, hope, laughter and enjoyment through the Me-One Foundation’s annual Camp Wieser (formerly Camp Challenge). Camp Wieser, located at Mission Springs Camp and Conference Center, 1050 Lockhart Gulch Road, Scotts Valley, CA 95066, is a no-cost weekend camp for families afflicted by cancer and in need of a place of joy and relaxation that will focus them on living life, and not fighting disease. By providing this haven of hope, we allow families to be victorious, even if temporarily, over cancer, and keeping life’s scoreboard at Cancer-Zero, Me-One.
A Brief History
From our Founder, Heidi M. Wieser, RN:
On July 26, 1979, my father passed away at age 43 after battling cancer for just three months. I was 15. Years later, I watched as my godmother deteriorated during a three-year battle with lung and brain cancer. On February 9, 2004, my high school sweetheart and husband, Tom, was diagnosed with stage II rectal cancer at age of 40. At the time, our children were 6, 8, 10 and 12 years old. On March 4, 2005, my husband, whom I had known for more than half my life, was told his disease had progressed to his lungs.
Through all of these trials I have learned an extremely valuable lesson. Cancer is not a disease that attacks a single patient. Cancer is a radiant disease. It attacks the one afflicted as well as his or her family and friends. It attacks without regard to race, age or family history. And, making it more terrifying, is the understanding that cancer is random and it never rests.
The therapies and treatments cancer patients endure are sometimes more painful than the disease. Surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy not only attack the patient’s body, but also their will to face continued treatment. Patients turn toward any ray of relief offered. Unfortunately, there are far too few ports of peace to meet the demands of the growing numbers of those afflicted with cancer.
I am well versed in the pain cancer can bring. I watched my father pass in a matter of months. I made it my life goal to fight against this predator by becoming an oncology nurse’ a position I have held for the past 25 years. I have held the hands of countless patients who were confused as to why this was their fate. I have shared final thoughts with those who were called from this earth in a worried and scared state. In 2013, I lost my husband to cancer after a nine-year battle.
In the course of these experiences, I came to the conclusion that my role is to lessen the pain that cancer brings to patients and families. I vowed to create a space that would serve as a port of peace for those who were battling cancer.
That solemn vow, made in 2006, was the origin of what is now Camp Wieser.
