Where Are They Now: Camper Turned Student Leader Jinger Axelson

For 25 years, Kesem has supported children facing a parent’s cancer through free, year-round programs and a lifelong community, led by dedicated college student volunteers. To mark the 25th anniversary, we’re catching up with former campers and student leaders to reflect on how their Kesem experiences continue to shape their lives.

Jinger Axelson is a current student leader at Southern Utah University. But her Kesem story began in 2010, when she became a Camp Kesem camper at just eight years old. As a child, she used to make countdown calendars to camp. “I loved it more than anything,” she says. “More than Christmas. More than my birthday.”

While dealing with the weight of her mother’s cancer, Kesem gave Jinger – and her sister Saige – space where she could just be a kid, experiencing joy and connection with a community of other kids who understood what she was going through.  “It was freeing to be around people who related without it being sad all the time… We could just be ourselves.”

Jinger returned to camp year after year, eventually stepping into leadership roles and becoming a counselor herself. She has now served as a counselor at all three Utah chapters.

She stays involved to help kids like her, but also because of the inspiration she finds in the Kesem community. “Every year I kind of think I have this stuff figured out,” she says, “and then the Kesem kids inspire me all over again… Watching the next generation be brave reminds me why this matters.”

Jinger’s also proud to be a part of building what she knows will be a lifelong community for her current Kesem campers. Those relationships are different, Jinger explains, because they are built on shared understanding. “When I was a kid, it mattered that we had friends in Kesem who understood the before, the during, and the after,” she says. “It meant everything that Kesem didn’t go away after our mom passed. They stayed.”

For Jinger, Kesem isn’t just something from her past. It’s something she still carries. “The invisible thread is very real,” she says. “Even now, as an adult, I still feel most connected to the people I grew up with at Kesem. We’re still there for each other.”

In summer 2026, Kesem’s 25th summer of camp, that invisible thread will connect in a new way: Jinger will be a counselor for her niece. “As a sister watching someone I love face cancer while raising her own children, I understand the need and impact of Kesem more clearly than ever. This season of camp will be meaningful for our family in a whole new way and I can’t wait to start building a lifetime of Kesem for my niece this year.”