Families with a child 18 years old or younger who is currently on treatment or has completed treatment within the past year qualify to attend a retreat. The treatment completion date must be within the past calendar year to qualify. The child on treatment, mom, dad, and siblings 21 years old or younger who are living at home are encouraged to attend the retreat together. If the parent is single, they may bring a significant other who has been involved in their cancer journey. To be fair to everyone, we can not include any extra adults for any reason. Families from all over the United States and Canada have joined us on retreat.

Once you arrive at the retreat, all of your food, lodging, and planned activities are covered. You only need to cover any additional expenses you incur outside our program. Travel expenses to and from the retreat are not covered. You are required to get yourself to and from the retreat. We do not cover your travel expenses; however, we do have limited scholarship funds to help supplement some of your travel costs. After you have been accepted to attend a retreat, you may request a travel scholarship application from our staff to help assist with gas. You will need to complete the form and have your Social Worker complete a portion as well, and email the completed form to jackie@lighthousefamilyretreat.org.

Focused treatment for your child’s cancer, such as chemo, radiation, surgery, immunotherapy, T-cell therapy, transplants, clinical trials, etc. Treatment for secondary side effects from your child’s cancer treatment does not fall into this category. Quarterly checkups or follow-ups after treatment do not qualify.

Our program is set up with morning activities for parents to meet as a group (Common Ground), and the kids are grouped by age and gender (Flip Flop). Afternoons are free for families to spend time together. Each evening, we have a different group activity around dinner that usually involves the whole family. Parents do have a night when they can go out while the volunteers care for their children. We do ask that all retreat attendees participate in all planned activities. Part of the Lighthouse Experience is our program that we have planned and prepared for your family. To learn more about retreat week activities, please see the Retreat Family page here. You can also review the tentative retreat schedule here. Please note: that this schedule is subject to change.

No! Lighthouse Family Retreat is a faith-based ministry, and our retreats are designed to strengthen families living through childhood cancer by helping them find hope in God as they continue to battle cancer. You do not have to be a person of faith, but you will experience the love of Christ through our words and actions while on a retreat.