Hike Of A Lifetime: Glenview Resident Helping Kids With Cancer

GLENVIEW, IL — It's a friendship that has grown over the past 15 years and will reach another level over the course of the next six months. Glenview's Coby Bassin, 23, met Trevor Draille, of Brookfield, Wisconsin, at a sleepaway camp for leukemia patients in remission. Both 8 at the time, the pair ended up in the same cabin during the Camp One Step Summer Camp program in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The friends stayed cabin mates for the next 10 years.

“This camp focuses on giving children with cancer a safe place to have fun and make friends, both things that can be extremely challenging while going through chemotherapy,” Bassin said. “We were able to have regular experiences like swimming in the lake, enjoying camp songs and games and sleeping in a cabin away from treatment in a supportive and safe environment."

Bassin and Draille are about to embark on an ambitious six-month hiking trip, first planned in 2015, across the Appalachian Trail. The trip begins Friday at Springer Mount in Georgia, will continue across 14 states up the East Coast, and finish at Katahdin Mountain in northwest Maine. When completed, they will have covered 2,201 miles.

"Right now, I’m feeling really stoked about the trip and I’m just itching to get out there," Bassin told Patch.

The trip will serve as an opportunity for the pair to give back to Camp One Step.

"We learned to love the outdoors and adventure through the programs we participated in and want to give back to Camp One Step by raising enough money to pay for two campers to go to camp for the next 10 years," Bassin said. "We are dedicating this journey to Camp One Step.”

Bassin was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia on May 1, 2000, when he was just 17 months old. He was treated for the next several years at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

Bassin attended Countryside and Glenbrook South. He will be receiving his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Saint Louis University in May. He studied two of his college years in Spain at Saint Louis University — Madrid. He currently works at Glenbrook Hospital on the oncology/hospice floor.

Draille went to Brookfield Central High School and attended The University of Wisconsin-Waukesha. He grew up in Brookfield and lives in Delafield, Wisconsin.

Tucker Nienhaus– Tucker will be also be joining Bassin and Dralle on their Appalachian trail adventure. Nienhaus-Tucker is also a graduate from Glenbrook South High School and attended University of Colorado. He is a fellow hiking enthusiast and long-time friend and will be documenting the hike on their Instagram page.

For more than 40 years, Camp One Step has served more than 16,500 campers. To learn more about doing an athletic event to raise funds for Camp One Step, including the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, visit TeamOneStep.org.