FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Dealing with the loss of a loved one can be hard on a child, so one organization is making it their mission to help young people deal with their grief.
Experience Camps provide a space for children to laugh, cry, play, create and remember the person who passed away or try to forget the grief that could weigh them down.
Volunteers at the camp said that the grief children endure could leave them confused, lonely and feel like they don’t have support, which can be detrimental to a child’s future.
“Watching these kids spend their week at camp is really exhilerating,” said camp volunteer Kristina Lucia. “You see kids who come in and they’re so sad or they’re so shy and by the end of camp, they’ve made so many friends, they don’t feel alone anymore and they can head back into the real world knowing that they have this foundation of people around them who understand what they’ve been through and will be there for them for the rest of their lives.”
There are many children like Austin Hamby, who need a place to process what happened.
“Austin, before camp, was a little shy about going to camp. He also thought he was the only child to have lost loved ones,” said Austin’s mother Jessica Dutcher. “It’s helped him a lot because now he understands that he’s not the only one that has gone through a loss of a family member.”
Austin has dealt with a lot of loss like with his father and grandparents.
But being at camp has helped him. “Seeing everybody with that problem, and I knew that I wasn’t the only one with that problem,” Austin said. “This camp helped me a lot, get over most of it, my sadness, it’s good, but it helped me get rid of that.”
Experience Camps helped him and others ease the pain of losing one connection by helping create new ones. “I still keep in contact with one of the bunkmates I had,” Austin said.
This event happened at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Discovery and Science.
Experience Camps have locations out of state, but the week-long camps are free. If you’d like more information, click here.
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