Experience Camps, a national nonprofit, is expanding to Connecticut with the launch of its annual summer camp program for children grieving the death of a parent, sibling, caregiver or loved one.
The camp runs from Aug. 18-23 in Kent, Connecticut, and is free to participants 8-18 years old.
“What camp allows kids to do is be in a place where we create space for whatever their grief looks like that day and in that moment,” said Sara Deren, founder and CEO of Experience Camps. “If they're going to cry, they can cry. If they want to laugh, they can laugh. We show them that all of their feelings are normal.”
Experience Camps is headquartered in Westport, Connecticut, but the summer program first launched in Maine in 2009 with 27 children. It later expanded to reach nearly 1,600 kids in California, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Maryland.
Around 6 million children in the United States will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18, according to the National Alliance for Children’s Grief.
Children, especially, can find it difficult to process their grief, according to a short Experiences Camp video. One young participant said “before I came to camp, I was destroyed by grief.” Another said, “you feel kind of isolated around other kids [who don’t understand your loss].”
But at camp “when someone’s sad, there’s always five kids that come and help them out,” a child said in the video.
Deren said grief is a unifying emotion — a child that lost a parent to gun violence can meet another child at camp whose parent died of cancer.
The children arrive together to camp by bus, not knowing what to expect.
They are welcomed by “maybe a hundred volunteers standing outside the bus doors,” Deren said. “And it's just the beginning of what will be a transformational week.”
At first, the first-time campers come off the bus nervous, Deren said.
Deren said the volunteers – many of whom have lost a loved one themselves – cheer, hold signs and make music for the arriving campers.
“They don't know what they're about to walk into,” she said. “They've probably been told they're going to grief camp, which sounds a little intimidating for a kid, and what they are met with is, yes, [it’s] grief camp, but it is at such a level of volume and energy and love that I think most of them never expected.”
Children are then sorted into their cabins and given a bite to eat before jumping right into quintessential summer camp activities, she said.
“We know that play is the universal language of childhood and that's where we need to start to build their trust, to build the connection among them and with their counselors,” she said. “They might run off into a scavenger hunt. We make milkshakes and pudding slides, and there's basketball and pool time and lake time, depending on where you are.”
While the camps do not offer therapy, there is a clinician or a licensed therapist assigned to each bunk to “support the kids when they are having the hard moments, but they're really there to facilitate peer support opportunities amongst the kids,” she said.
The camp is expanding in other ways.
“We were hearing from some caregivers, particularly in communities of color, that are like, ‘I'm not going to send my child to grief camp or away overnight camp with people I don't know. That feels dangerous to me,’ Deren said. “So we created a family camp program so that caregivers can go with their kids.”
Experience Camps also launched its first day camp in Connecticut in February, kicking off with ice-skating for local families in Bridgeport. A ninja warrior class is scheduled for March in Norwalk, and a hockey game for Hartford families in April. The events, like the sleep-away camps, and overnight family camps, are free of cost to participants.
Learn more
To apply, fill out the Connecticut camp registration form. The free overnight camp at Kent for 8-18 year-olds runs from Aug. 18-23 is now accepting applications.
