Survivor finds true love at camp for kids with cancer

Janine Jurinak was only anticipating a week of fun activities in June 1996 when she first joined other campers at TLC Camp in Lombard.

The Arlington Heights fifth-grader was just happy to be alive and healthy, a year in remission after a battle with leukemia.

Boys to a then 11-year-old Janine were, well, ick.

In the years that followed as a camper then as a counselor, she never expected to find her true love at the Lombard Junior Woman's Club's day camp for kids with cancer.

"When you're at camp, it's about the kids," said Jurinak, now a pediatric nurse at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.

Likewise, Kevin Mills of Lombard focused on his campers and their needs from his first day as a counselor trainee in 1997, and afterward as a counselor and a photographer.

"I was a firm believer in not dating anyone at camp. It would take away the focus on the reason we were there," Mills said.

Mills took to heart his role of providing tender loving care for the ailing children after hearing so much about the special camp from his mom. As a Lombard Junior, Jan Mills spent months each year since 1984 helping plan the annual camp where she also volunteered.

"Once you think about what these kids go through, it really puts things into perspective," Kevin Mills says. "To help out for only five days out of the year is the least anyone can do."

For Kevin Mills and Janine Jurinak, fate intervened. And love grew from a connection made at the annual one-week camp for children battling cancer for their lives.

TLC Camp is hosting about 100 children at the Lombard Park District's Sunset Knoll Recreation Center this week. At the same time, Mills, 24, and Jurinak, 23, are putting the final plans in place for their Saturday wedding, which was scheduled to coincide with camp week.

"It's heart-warming ... wonderful," says Jan Mills. "It's fate that brought them together, kismet."

The event is the first marriage involving a former camper and a counselor since camp began in 1983.

A Lombard Junior who was a nurse suggested the women's group host TLC Camp after reading about a similar one in another state. The club embraced the idea of giving ailing children respite from their life-and-death battles. Recognizing the sacrifices of siblings, the women also welcome a sibling.

Camp directors have always just been thrilled that the ailing campers survived their cancer. With about 100 campers and roughly 75 volunteers, many of whom return year after year, they didn't even consider that the kids would grow up and return as counselors, much less form lifelong relationships.

"We always had the little romances. We never envisioned something like this. This marriage is really unique," said Barb Finn, a Lombard Junior and past camp director. "Our focus was just getting more campers and giving them happy experiences," she said.

In 2004 when both were counselors, Jurinak noticed Mills hamming it up while leading a camp song one day.

"The only thing that existed was these kids, and nothing else mattered. And he just gave them so much love and attention," Jurinak said. "He was just incredibly sweet and wore his heart on his sleeve."

Friends warned her that he'd just broken up with a girlfriend, but Jurinak wasn't dissuaded. She wasn't looking for a big romance anyway, just friendship. It was camp after all: The kids came first, especially because Jurinak knew firsthand its importance to ailing children.

"Camp was a second home," she said. "It was a huge part of my childhood, my life. I met wonderful people and found a career."

Thanks to positive encounters at camp, memories of the leukemia and the treatments don't hover like a "dark cloud," she said.

"I don't look back at it as an awful thing," said Jurinak, who suffers a mild hearing loss from the experience. "I see all of the wonderful things that came out of it. I'm pretty lucky."

Being friendly, Jurinak eventually reached out to Mills.

As camp lore goes, Mills snubbed Jurinak's initial effort: "Hi" as they passed each other one day at camp.

Mills insists no insult or injury was intended. He didn't hear her greeting. He was carrying a camper's lunch and was focused on getting it and the camper back to their table intact.

Dedicated to the kids herself, Jurinak was unaffected by the unintended slight. She remained focused on her campers until that Friday night when counselors gathered for a post-camp party to socialize with each other.

At that gathering, Jurinak first felt a proverbial flicker as they talked extensively. Despite being skeptical of love at first sight, Jurinak admits, she sensed an unusual connection with Mills that she hadn't felt with others.

"It was just a vibe I got," she said.

Mills felt it too.

"It was too good to be true," he said. "She's cute. She's got a great heart. I knew we'd be a great couple."

But, Kevin was heading off to Purdue University in Indiana and Janine was returning Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in the fall, so they parted as just friends. They expected to reconnect at camp the following June.

They reunited over the internet a bit sooner. At a friend's urging, Jurinak joined Facebook.com that March and found Mills. A few e-mail chats turned into phone calls, some as long as three hours.

"It clicked," she said. "The more we talked, the more we realized we had in common and that there might be something there. We could just be ourselves and be goofy."

The feelings were mutual for Mills. The more he learned about Jurinak _ her sense of humor, her values, upbeat personality and positive outlook on life-the more hooked he got.

"She wants to spend her life giving back and taking care of sick kids. That just drew me in," he said.

Their first date was the Lilac Ball in May 2005. It actually started out as an evening of two friends hanging out, but by the end of the night the romance had bloomed.

Watching Janine interact with the campers the next month impressed him more.

"She'd find the shy, quiet ones and draw them out," he described. "She understands what they're going through. She's like an angel."

Exactly four years after they first talked, the couple is marrying at St. Edna Catholic Church in Arlington Heights. Instead of favors, they are donating to the camp that made such an impact on their outlooks and their lives.

"They always say it's the last place you expect to meet someone," Mills said. "It was meant to be."