Grief Series and Workshops

If you are interested in attending, or would like more information, please contact our Bereavement Department at (540) 536-5210. We look forward to hearing from you. Not sure if this group is right for you? Check with our Bereavement Department professionals for offerings that may better suit your needs.

Bereavement Department Events No one is immune to loss, not even children. Children often feel alone during grief and adults facing the same losses often don't know where to turn for help. In the summer 0f 2008, Blue Ridge Hospice presented a one-day camp to help children face the grieving process. Archived Articles: Bereavement / Remembrance Ceremony (PDF/21k) Children coping with death can visit camp (PDF/13k)

Camp Hope helps kids deal with loss

Monday, August 18, 2008
By Laura Oleniacz
The Winchester Star

Kernstown — At a table with three other children, a bucket of markers, and blue, orange, and green quilt squares, 9-year-old Michael Wachter sat brainstorming.“We’re drawing pictures of our loved ones,” he said Saturday at the Youth Development Center in Kernstown.

Michael had come from Martinsburg, W.Va., for the one-day session of Camp Hope, a free camp for children ages 3 to 16 run by Blue Ridge Hospice, a nonprofit health-care organization based in Winchester.

Camp Hope participants Leah Swartwout (left) and Jeffrey Jones, both 10, design quilt squares Saturday with some help from Tracy Knight (second from left), a bereavement counselor for Blue Ridge Hospice, and Kristin Reilly, a music therapist for the nonprofit organization. (Photo by Ginger Perry)

The camp aims to give children an outlet for the grief of losing a family member or friend.“People that grieve healthily as children grieve healthily as adults,” said Leslie Stewart, bereavement coordinator for Blue Ridge Hospice. The camp also gave children the opportunity to meet peers with similar experiences of loss, Stewart said, and to have fun.

Children created sand art, made memory boxes, wrote a journal, learned new songs, built bird houses, made masks, and jumped on a Moon Bounce. There was also a special performance by Stephens City-based Master Lim’s U.S. Martial Arts Academy.

Camp Hope is in its third year, Stewart said, but this was the first year it was held at the Youth Development Center on Battaile Drive. Sixty-six children attended this year, increasing by 32 campers from last year. They live in Winchester, Frederick County, and surrounding areas including Shenandoah and Loudoun counties, Stewart said.

At the camp, children learned ways to cope with anger, about the appropriateness of tears, and that grief and loss are part of a natural process.“The big goal is to get comfortable in their loss, that grief is OK, and there are adults that are here for them,” Stewart said. Children can come to the camp for help with the loss of siblings, parents, and grandparents, as well as divorce.

Some of the children who attended the camp had family members who were clients of Blue Ridge Hospice care, Stewart said. Blue Ridge Hospice focuses on palliative care, providing physical, emotional, social, and spiritual support for terminally ill patients and their families in Winchester and Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Shenandoah, Page, and western Loudoun counties.

In addition to the camp on Saturday, Blue Ridge Hospice also offered a parent session from 9:15 to 11:15 a.m. There were about 25 adults signed up this year, Stewart said.

Although Camp Hope is only offered one day per year, there are year-round support groups of various types available for children and adults, she said. Waiting in line for registration Saturday morning with her family, Natalie Schlosser, 15, said she and her sister Rachel, 12, and brother Daniel, 4, attended the camp to cope with the loss of their father. “I want them to be able to share what they’ve gone through,” said their mother, Karen Schlosser. Natalie said she didn’t know what to expect from the camp, but she was optimistic. “I think it will be interesting to meet other children who have undergone similar experiences,” she said. Leah Swartwout, 10, was in her third year of attendance at the camp. Her grandmother had been a residential patient at Blue Ridge Hospice for a year, said her mother, Stephanie Swartwout.

At the previous camps, Leah said she enjoyed making a quilt square and watching a play where people juggled pins and balls. Before Saturday’s camp, she was hoping to meet new friends and have more fun, she said.

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Links to Resources

Additional resources can be found in our Lending library: LendingLibraryLog22008.xls (Excel/76k) located in the Blue Ridge Hospice Residential Center.

Suggested Videos for Those Who Have Suffered a Loss:

• "Men in Grief"
• "Surviving as a Widower"
• "No one Ever Told Us" , Linda Cunningham - Tag Video "The Gifts of Grief", Nancy Sobonya
  

Grief and Loss Web Resources

If you have any questions, you can e-mail our bereavement department at bereavement@blueridgehospice.org or phone (540) 536-5210.

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