This piece was submitted by sophomore student, Marissa O’Brien

The Teddi Dance for Love is one of, if not the, biggest student-run organizations at St. John Fisher University. The club has been active for 42 years and counting. It is made up of at least 100 committee members and about a dozen or so captains. Committee members and captains work year-round to raise money to donate to Camp Good Days & Special Times, as well as to send a few lucky campers on a trip to Disney World and Universal Studios. Many students on campus are aware of the club and the dance, but not as many understand the story behind the club, its connection to St. John Fisher, and the impact it has on so many children. 

The club is dedicated to Elizabeth “Teddi” Mervis. She was the youngest daughter of former St. John Fisher football coach Gary Mervis. Whenever she was driving past the campus, Teddi would frequently point at the campus from the back seat and say, “I want to go there. That’s where I’m going to go to school.” She was diagnosed with brain cancer in 1979, when she was just nine years old, and fought valiantly until she lost her battle in 1981. Teddi was unable to pursue her education at St. John Fisher, but her legacy lives on through the founding of this club. Teddi has made a permanent impact on student life at the campus she so badly wanted to attend. 

Whether or not cancer has had a direct impact on club members, Teddi brings students together to collaborate and achieve one common goal: to help the kids affected have memorable experiences, allow them some semblance of a childhood and to meet kids who have similar experiences to theirs — to remind them that they are not alone. Members meet once a week to work on dance preparations. Gary Mervis, founder of the Teddi Project and Camp Good Days & Special Times, stops by at least one committee meeting during the semester, as well as the start and end of the dance to share the story of Teddi and how and why he started camp. 

Being diagnosed with such a horrible illness resulted in Teddi having to grow up quickly. She had to deal with mature emotions and difficult conversations at such a young age. She, like many children in her position, was not able to experience a normal childhood. Gary Mervis, seeing this, realized that this was the most painful part of her diagnosis: not the chemotherapy and radiation treatments but the feeling of loneliness and isolation. This spurred Mervis into action. If Teddi was feeling this way, there were probably hundreds of children experiencing these emotions as well. Mervis wanted to create a place where children could realize they were not alone and be with kids who have dealt with the same circumstances as them. 

One morning, while watching the “Today” show, Mervis saw a segment about sick children going on fun hikes and swimming in nature. It was this idea, that a group of children all going through the same trials and sharing those same feelings of loneliness and isolation, that inspired Mervis to create a safe-haven for children suffering with cancer. He wanted to create a place where these kids would be able to play in the water and sun, and where they could laugh and bond with other kids that were just like them. He wanted a place to take away that feeling of remoteness. Thus, Camp Good Days was born less than a year after Teddi’s diagnosis.

Camp Good Days & Special Times Inc. is a non-profit organization to provide children with cancer, as well as their families, the chance to come together in an outdoor setting and be able to bond with other kids just like them. Mervis was able to make this dream a reality with the help of friends, family and community members in the Rochester area. The camp has always been free to campers and their family members, and thrives on the money received through donations and the hard work of volunteers. In an interview with Brenda Alisii, when asked why the cost of camp was free, Mervis responded, “These kids already spend so much time in hospitals. I never want a family already struggling with a cancer stricken child to worry about money or worry about choosing between paying their mortgage or sending their kid to camp.” 

The original location of Camp Good Days was in the Adirondack Mountains. It was the only place of its kind in Western/Central New York for children diagnosed with cancer. It was important for the camp to be able to enjoy the fresh air and wilderness while also being close to a hospital with a cancer center. The closest hospital to the Adirondacks is the Upstate Cancer Center, in Syracuse, New York. The selection process for which children would be allowed to participate in this excursion was very meticulous. For the first year, the children at camp were older and in remission. However, over the following years the camp would be available to children of any age. 

As helpful as the hospitals in Syracuse were, most of Camp Good Days’ aid came from the University of Rochester. As a result, Mervis wanted to relocate the camp closer to the University of Rochester, but still in between Rochester and Syracuse. Camp Good Days is now located on the western shore of Keuka Lake and has been there since 1989. It is at the southern edge of Branchport, New York and about 50 miles south of Rochester, New York. In addition to the actual campsite, Camp Good Days also has headquarters located in Mendon, NY, Buffalo, NY, Syracuse, NY, and Ithaca, NY. 

Camp Good Days is now a 15-acre camp with activities on the lake, such as paddle boarding or playing on a large inflatable slide, a swimming pool, playground, craft lodge and much more. What started as just a wish for Teddi Mervis to be able to connect and relate to children just like her has now become a safe-haven to children all over New York, America, and many other countries to escape the burden of being a cancer patient.

As aforementioned, all the programs and facilities included at Camp Good Days are free of charge for children and their families. In order to maintain the camp and ensure that it could remain free of charge, different fundraisers were held throughout the year to raise money for the camp. One of the biggest fundraisers of the year that contributes to Camp Good Days is St. John Fisher’s Teddi Dance for Love. However, it wasn’t Mervis that started the Teddi Dance for Love, it was Lou Buttino. 

Dr. Buttino was a former faculty member at St. John Fisher, much like Gary Mervis. He was a professor that taught political science and communication. He was also a close friend of Mervis and wanted to find a way to help and support him during this difficult time. After talking with a few of his students, the idea of a 24-hour-long dance marathon was suggested. This would later become known as the Teddi Dance for Love. 

The first dance took place in 1982 in the Fisher Student Athletic Center (SLC), where it is still held today. There were only about a few dozen dancers that year, but they were able to raise about $7,500 for Camp Good Days. Since then, the Teddi dance has become an annual event on the Fisher campus. Its number of participating members, in both the dance and the club, has only continued to grow. With this steady growth, the members’ fundraising efforts have only intensified, resulting in a greater amount of money raised to support Camp Good Days.

Teddi Mervis’ dream of attending Fisher has blossomed into so much more. Her legacy has taken root in our campus and lives on through her dance. She has brought communities together to raise money for kids just like her to give them the childhood that she had to miss.

Learn more about Teddi here:

https://www.bfohealth.com/features/q-a-with-gary-mervis/ 

https://bendegeorge.wordpress.com/2007/07/22/gary-mervis-founder-of-camp-good-days/ 

https://www.campgooddays.org/history  

https://teddi.sjf.edu/about/