Small groups, big ambitions

With more than 800 student groups and organizations, it is difficult to miss the enthusiasm and passion of UCLA students. Each day students participate in and help plan countless programs to benefit the UCLA community and the greater Los Angeles area.

With so many student groups at UCLA, new and smaller ones say they often face difficulties competing against larger, well-known organizations.

Students involved with Camp Kesem, a weeklong student-run summer camp for children whose parents have cancer, are searching for a way to create a lasting presence on a campus already full of student groups.

The organization is led by 10 students who spend the year raising money and recruiting student counselors to create a camp where kids can have fun and also give their parents fighting cancer a week to breathe, said Camp Kesem fundraising coordinator Tom Joseph, a third-year molecular, cellular and developmental biology student.

Camp Kesem, in its second year, hosted 80 kids on an entirely donated $40,000 budget this past summer.

Members said Camp Kesem is different from other organizations because it is made up of a close group of friends.

“What makes (Camp Kesem) different is that the counselors really feel like family. After camp the counselors feel the deepest connection to their kids,” Joseph said.

But Camp Kesem, like other smaller student groups, faces competition recruiting members from more well-established student groups on campus.

Ravi Chaudhari, co-director of Camp Kesem, said the largest problem the group faced was finding volunteers who would seriously commit themselves for a long period of time.

“As a smaller group we don’t get taken as seriously as larger groups,” Chaudhari said.

Chaudhari said he chose to be a part of Kesem over other student groups because of the feeling of accomplishment the organization gives him.

“Our staff learned everything and figured out how to make a camp run instead of copying from the past,” Chaudhari said.

“I wouldn’t get that experience from a larger organization. In (Camp Kesem) I feel more connected to the cause – we are the foundation of the organization,” he said.

Joseph said Camp Kesem members are concerned with keeping the group active and successful for years to come, though not necessarily by growing into a “super-large” organization.

“We are trying to recruit new members to make the organization last when we leave. We don’t want Kesem to die with us,” Joseph said.

But some of the larger groups on campus had small beginnings as well.

Dance Marathon, a 26-hour dance-a-thon benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, has grown to be one of the largest student groups on campus, with more than 700 students participating in last year’s event.

The organization began five years ago after a few students participated at a Dance Marathon event hosted during a fraternity and sorority convention, and enjoyed it so much that they brought the idea to UCLA, Dance Marathon Director Aviva Altmann said.

“Dance Marathon started out as a small organization of people trying to plan an event. No one really had any idea of how large Dance Marathon could really be,” said Jenny Wood, a founding member of Dance Marathon and former Undergraduate Students Association Council president.

The first Dance Marathon was held in Tom Bradley International Hall and had 200 participants, Altmann said.

Dance Marathon attracted students because “committee members committed themselves to the organization and committed themselves to the cause and then were able to engage students in a fun way,” Wood said.

Altmann contributes the success of Dance Marathon in just a few short years to the advertising created by its organizers.

“The publicity, like wearing the high-lighter T-shirts, made Dance Marathon stand out and turned it into something recognizable and unique on campus,” Altmann said.

Dance Marathon was also successful because of its partnerships with other UCLA organizations, Wood said. The organization is an affiliate of the Student Welfare Commission.

Members of both Camp Kesem and Dance Marathon said one of the most important aspects of their student group is the cause they support.

“(Dance Marathon) is not just another event or another club. It’s a 26-hour event where people come together and bond,” Altmann said.

Similarly, Camp Kesem members are proud of the support their camp offers to kids.

“Camp Kesem really is a grassroots movement. A group of people came together with an idea and now have an amazingly successful camp. It’s very pleasing to see this can happen without bureaucratic issues and without losing motivation,” Joseph said.