Shouts and laughter can be heard from a distance, and on closer inspection, the swimming area - cordoned off with milk-jug floats - bubbles with swimmers, purple and pink swimming noodles and black innertubes.

"Oh my gosh, it's cold!" exclaims one dripping lad.

The presence of an audience brings an opportunity to perform.

"Watch our show!" comes the order, and the Beach Boys' Surfin' Safari fills the air. Several swimmers form a line and then laugh and sing their way through a routine that ends with a series of high-fives.

The other campers hoot and cheer - another sample of the camp's omnipresent culture of friendship and acceptance. Here, everyone greets everyone else by name, and ages mean little because of the campers' shared experience.

"It doesn't matter what age they experience these things, they go through the same thing," said Gary Lam, the other coordinator of camp operations. "A six-year-old in remission can be a role model to a newly diagnosed 15-year-old."

Over at the Classroom - a wood-and-stone building overlooking the lake - groups of pre-teens take part in Camp Goodtimes' version of cub cars. They make and decorate wooden cars and then launch them down a 30-plus foot ramp that starts inside the building and cascades to the patio outside.

A few boys do test runs on a small ramp off a picnic table outside. At one point, they set aside their games to talk about life, death and cancer.

It's a pretty heavy conversation for a group of youngsters, but not unusual at Camp Goodtimes.