Listen live 
High Plains News
Memories Matter Bereavement Camp Helps Kids with Their Grief
The social worker for Golden Belt Home Health and Hospice, Cathy Soeken, says at the beginning of the day the children are a little apprehensive.
"First they're very nervous about coming because they don't know what's going to happen, but after they get here and there are a bunch of fun activities as well as working on their grief "
The ornaments are placed on the tree and the campers head over to a semi-circle group of chairs for a sing-a-long. Before they start singing one of the camp counselors teaches them actions and new words to go along with "Lean on Me." As another counselor points to the words on a big poster on the wall, the group belts out the song.
While tables are being loaded with glue guns, glitter and various other art supplies, three counselors entertain the campers with a puppet show about how a young puppet learns about his grandmother's death. After the puppet worked through his grief with the help of his grandfather and sister, the counselors hand out long white socks to the campers. In a flurry of plastic eyes, feathers, glitter and glue the campers create their own sock puppets. The counselors help the campers make the sock puppets and talk to them about who they are remembering.
The chaplain for Golden Belt Home Health and Hospice John Grummon says he believes this day camp helps the children with their grief because throughout the day they are able to talk about the person they have lost.
"And they have the freedom to talk about their feelings about it, and they have the experience of knowing other children have had similar experiences in their life. At school their classmates mostly do not have that experience so their classmates can't really understand or relate with them very well, here they have other children who are relating to similar losses in their lives."
The campers set the decorated sock puppets on an empty table, and they gather around for story time. The campers listen intently to the book The Tenth Good Thing about Barney. In the book the boy's cat, Barney, dies and his mom tells him to think of ten good things about Barney. At the cat's funeral he can only think of nine things. By the end of the book he finally thinks of the tenth good thing. With the help of parents and guardians and camp counselors the children record memories about the person they lost in their own memory books.
"We have memory books that they can put a picture in, and talk about maybe ten good things I remember about this person, how I felt about when I heard about the death, where I was and so on.
In the afternoon, after making s'mores, the children meet in groups with counselors. The different groups were made up of children with similar experiences of who they lost or how they lost someone. During these sessions the children are invited to share what they are feeling about the person are remembering. The camp ended the day with parents and guardians and the campers writing letters to the people they have lost. After tying the letters to balloons, the group launched the balloons into the sky.
© Copyright 2012, hppr
(2010-10-29)
Listen Now:
GREAT BEND, KAN
(hppr) -
Campers at Memories Matter Bereavement Camp begin their Saturday morning by circling around an evergreen tree. Each camper and counselor has a heart shaped paper ornament with pictures of the people they have lost. As they receive encouragement from the counselors, one by one the campers find the perfect place on the tree for their ornament. While hanging the heart, they share with the group who they are remembering during the day camp.
null
The social worker for Golden Belt Home Health and Hospice, Cathy Soeken, says at the beginning of the day the children are a little apprehensive.
"First they're very nervous about coming because they don't know what's going to happen, but after they get here and there are a bunch of fun activities as well as working on their grief "
The ornaments are placed on the tree and the campers head over to a semi-circle group of chairs for a sing-a-long. Before they start singing one of the camp counselors teaches them actions and new words to go along with "Lean on Me." As another counselor points to the words on a big poster on the wall, the group belts out the song.
While tables are being loaded with glue guns, glitter and various other art supplies, three counselors entertain the campers with a puppet show about how a young puppet learns about his grandmother's death. After the puppet worked through his grief with the help of his grandfather and sister, the counselors hand out long white socks to the campers. In a flurry of plastic eyes, feathers, glitter and glue the campers create their own sock puppets. The counselors help the campers make the sock puppets and talk to them about who they are remembering.
The chaplain for Golden Belt Home Health and Hospice John Grummon says he believes this day camp helps the children with their grief because throughout the day they are able to talk about the person they have lost.
"And they have the freedom to talk about their feelings about it, and they have the experience of knowing other children have had similar experiences in their life. At school their classmates mostly do not have that experience so their classmates can't really understand or relate with them very well, here they have other children who are relating to similar losses in their lives."
The campers set the decorated sock puppets on an empty table, and they gather around for story time. The campers listen intently to the book The Tenth Good Thing about Barney. In the book the boy's cat, Barney, dies and his mom tells him to think of ten good things about Barney. At the cat's funeral he can only think of nine things. By the end of the book he finally thinks of the tenth good thing. With the help of parents and guardians and camp counselors the children record memories about the person they lost in their own memory books.
"We have memory books that they can put a picture in, and talk about maybe ten good things I remember about this person, how I felt about when I heard about the death, where I was and so on.
In the afternoon, after making s'mores, the children meet in groups with counselors. The different groups were made up of children with similar experiences of who they lost or how they lost someone. During these sessions the children are invited to share what they are feeling about the person are remembering. The camp ended the day with parents and guardians and the campers writing letters to the people they have lost. After tying the letters to balloons, the group launched the balloons into the sky.
© Copyright 2012, hppr
