Aspen, Colo.- Eleven-year-old Katie Roberds sat off to the side of the dance floor, watching the other children and adults laughing and dancing. After a few minutes, the pale girl threw aside her crutches and hopped on one leg to the
middle of the action.
The crowd chanted, "Go, Katie! Go, Katie!" while she danced joyously.
Former professional tennis star Andrea Jaeger rushed to Katie's side and copied
her dancing style. Soon, everyone was hopping just like Katie.
For a brief moment, the young girl from Las Vegas forgot about all the things
cancer has taken away --- her hair, her leg and her eye. "When you hear music
and see people dancing, you've got to join them," Katie says. "I decided it was
time for me to dance and have fun."
These small moments of joy are the reason Jaeger and a group of seven friends
work tirelessly for her Kids' Stuff Foundation.
Jaeger, along with friend and former college tennis player Heidi Bookout,
founded the nonprofit group in 1990.
It came after Jaeger, a tennis prodigy from suburban Chicago who turned pro at
age 14, had enjoyed success in a relatively brief career on tour. She won 10
singles titles, was ranked No. 2 in the world in August 1981 and reached the
finals of the French Open in 1982 and Wimbledon in 1983.
But a shoulder injury at 18 hastened retirement.
Now 33, Jaeger doesn't yearn for the past.
"I knew I needed to do something with my life, something that fulfilled me in a
way tennis never really did," Jaeger says. "The foundation was it. I wanted to
help kids, and in a way, this was a calling to live life on my terms."
Jaeger financed the foundation with her career winnings of nearly $1.4 million.
The foundation's aim is to help children with life-threatening illnesses through
programs ranging from financial assistance to trips to Aspen headquarters and
other places.
"This is all about giving them love," Jaeger says. "We want to provide them a
therapeutic environment where they just experience everything."
"Kids are kids, whether they have cancer or not. These kids are amazing. You
feed off their energy and love."
Groups of 15 to 20 kids from around the country come to Aspen for weeklong
sessions designed to rebuild their emotional and spiritual strength.
All expenses are paid for the kids, right down to providing them with warm
clothes in the winter. The kids range from ages 7 to 18.
A recent group went skiing, dogsledding, watched parts of the 24 Hours of
Aspen ski race, went sightseeing aboard a private jet and ate at some of the tony
town's hippest restaurants.
They also met stars Cindy Crawford, Paul Newman, Robert Wagner and wrestler
Bill Goldberg. The celebrities mingled with the kids and showed support for
Jaeger's work.
"Andrea's program has her personality stamped all over it," says Newman, who
helps children with life-threatening illnesses through his Connecticut Hole in the
Wall Gang camp. "She's doing exactly what she wants to do."
Kids' Stuff, especially Jaeger, is constantly raising funds to meet the annual
budget of $2 million. The money comes from charitable foundations, private
donations and corporate connections.
She hopes to raise an endowment of $10 million or more for long-term care.
The foundation recently reached a big milestone, with the structural completion of
an 18,500 square-foot facility dubbed the "Silver Lining Ranch."
The $6 million building, styled like a pine-log Western lodge, is nestled in a
picturesque corner of Aspen's valley.
The 11-bedroom ranch boasts several unique features:
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A 20-seat indoor Jacuzzi, the largest in Aspen, will accommodate kids with limited mobility. The outdoor swimming pool includes a ramp. A mock Western town will be built around the pool.
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The kids will be able to watch the stars through a fiber optic astronomy system built into the ceiling of the two-story activity room. Or they can go to the turret to look out the windows. The unique turret is dedicated to
Rhea Olsen, a camper from Jaeger's first group in 1992. Olsen died of cancer in 1996, telling Jaeger her final wish was to be remembered.
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Celebrities donated special areas: a music room from tennis pro John McEnroe; a meditation/prayer room from San Antonio Spurs All-Star David Robinson; and a performance stage from Newman.
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Interactive fountains in the shape of elephants will squirt water near the entrance.
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And the kids' favorite feature, the "hang-out room" donated by supermodel Crawford. The room is dedicated to her brother Jeff, who died of leukemia at age 3.
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"Jeff's favorite thing was to just hang out and play," Crawford says. "That's exactly what I hope the kids will do."
There's also a quiet nod to the children's serious illnesses, with a medical suite
containing examining rooms and a bedroom to handle emergencies.
The interior needs to be furnished and landscaping needs to be done by late spring
1999, costing around another million.
But Jaeger isn't worried.
Making Miracles
"We couldn't imagine coming this far," Jaeger says. "We've had so many miracles, from the land being donated to all the special people who have given money or their time."
"We can make more miracles happen by having the kids here instead of having to
do everything at a hotel. We have a home now."
(Under the photo of Billy Goldberg and kids): Power lunch: Campers often meet
celebrities, like wrestler Bill Goldberg, who visits with Xavier Lugo, left, and Robin Caesar.
(Under Ranch photo): 'We have a home': A 18,500 square-foot $6 million facility
is near completion.
The tennis community, through players such as Monica Seles, McEnroe, Pete
Sampras, Andre Agassi and Linsay Davenport, has frequently helped Kids' Stuff.
McEnroe gave the foundation its first donation, an amount neither side wished to disclose, on Christmas 1990.
"The tennis community has been our savior, "Jaeger says. "They believed in us before anybody
else did."
A group of British campers visited Seles and Agassi at Wimbledon this year.
"It was very special for me, because I knew what they were going through since I
had just lost my father to cancer," Seles says. Her father, Karolj, died May 14 after a five-year battle with cancer. Andrea told them my dad had died and was
now with me in spirit.
"The kids rushed toward me and hugged me. They said everything was going to
be OK. It just shows how big their hearts are. They're going through everything,
but still have so much love to give."
One of the elephant fountains will be named in the memory of Karolj.
Kids' Stuff sponsors two camps: the "Ranch on the Road" that visits the U.S.
Open, Wimbledon and other tournaments; and the Aspen.
Four groups a year come to Aspen, with three sessions in the summer and one in
the winter. The frequency of sessions will increase to year-round after the ranch is
done.
"I have seen kids transformed from their time here," says Jim McKinnell, a
pediatric oncologist at the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Hospital Center.
He came with a group of six kids from metro New York City to the winter
session.
There are no overprotective parents hovering, no doctors poking them and telling
them what to do," he says. "For a few days, they get control back over their lives.
It does me good to see them happy, strong and acting like normal kids."
Daisy Espadas, a 17-year-old from Brooklyn who has Hodgkin's Disease, says
her time at the ranch is special.
"You can never really forget you have cancer, but I come really close here,"
Espadas says. "You don't think about being a sick girl who could die."
The Kids' Stuff staff tries to keep the positive vibe going through the free trip
video, two 800 numbers and a monthly newsletter. The kids can vent their hopes
and fears, day or night, to Jaeger or other staffers through the toll-free lines.
And sometimes the staff receives the phone call they dread the most --- news that
a beloved camper has died.
Staffers don't attend funerals, instead choosing to stick to the ranch's motto:
"There are no goodbyes." Campers live forever through their picture on the "Wall
of Life" in the administrative office. Recent campers also have left their handprints
in blocks of cement, which will become the path to the pool area.
Confronting Death
"You love in such a different way, a freer way, when you know there might be an
end," says Kevin Smyley, the foundation's program manager.
"I know on some level some of these kids I have just loved are going to die. But I
will not let myself consciously acknowledge that until it happens."
Jaeger approaches death in a different way: "I remember that I was so privileged
to have them with me for a week of their lives.
"Every child that dies leaves a little hole in my heart. But the next group that
comes in patches it up again. And that's how we all keep this going."
Aspen, Colo.- Eleven-year-old Katie Roberds sat off to the side of the dance floor, watching the other children and adults laughing and dancing. After a few minutes, the pale girl threw aside her crutches and hopped on one leg to the
middle of the action.