In 1979, Gary Mervis' youngest of three children, Teddi, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Mervis spent months searching for the best possible medical care for his daughter, traveling from Massachusetts General in Boston to the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco, and also visiting Columbia Presbyterian, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Albany Medical Center, Roswell Park, MD Anderson and the National Institute for Health. Despite all of this, he returned home unable to find the answers he had so desperately been searching for.It became very evident that the cruelest part of Teddi's battle was not the craniotomy, chemotherapy or radiation that she had to undergo, but it was the loneliness and the fact that the disease was robbing her of her childhood. So, in late 1979, with the help of many caring and generous individuals in the Rochester community, Mervis founded Camp Good Days and Special Times to give children suffering from cancer, the opportunity to regain some of their lost childhood. What was started to provide a residential camping experience for Teddi and 62 other children with cancer has grown to become one of the largest organizations of its kind in the country. Many of the programs and services, started at Camp Good Days have been used as models for childhood cancer treatment centers and organizations all across the United States and Canada. Camp Good Days has expanded over the years and now provides residential camping experiences and year-round support and recreational programs and services for children, adults and their families whose lives have been touched by cancer and other life threatening challenges. Programs are now offered for children with cancer, including children with cancer from 23 foreign countries who have participated in the Doing A World of Good Program; children who have or have lost a parent or sibling to cancer; women dealing with cancer; men dealing with cancer; children with sickle cell anemia; children who have lost a family member to violence.Camp Good Days has been featured in the New York Times, the Toronto Star, New York Daily News, USA Today, McCalls, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal, MAMM Magazine, Seventeen Magazine, as well as the several major medical journals, newspapers and magazines throughout New York State and Central Florida. Camp Good Days has also been the focus of award-winning television documentaries and was featured in a primetime half-hour special on NEWS10NBC to commemorate the 25th Anniversary Year in 2004. The Camp Good Days' story is also featured in the book, For the Love of Teddi: The Story Behind Camp Good Days & Special Times, For the Love of Teddi: The Story Behind Camp Good Days & Special Times, written by Dr. Lou Buttino.