Bereavement camp helps kids navigate grief, find hope

On a weekend in June each summer, youth ages 6-17 gather at a campground on the banks of Glen Cove in unincorporated Pierce County to attend Camp Erin Tacoma.

Surrounded by lush foliage and towering pine trees, campers run, laugh, play, sing songs, roast s’mores and participate in many of the traditional activities associated with overnight summer camp.

But there’s one thing that makes this group of children unique — each of them has lost a significant person in their lives, such as a parent, sibling or grandparent.

“There’s a saying that goes ‘We cannot heal what we do not acknowledge,’ says Lisa Duke, program coordinator for the Bridges Center for Grieving Children, which offers Camp Erin Tacoma. “Young children who are grieving may not have the cognitive development to really understand what they’re feeling. At Camp Erin Tacoma, we help both younger and older children acknowledge their grief, understand its impact on their lives and connect with other kids who are going through similar experiences.”

Understanding grief, finding joy

Camp Erin Tacoma, supported in part by Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation, is a free bereavement camp that has served more than 900 children across Pierce, Kitsap, Thurston and South King counties since 2004.

Part of a national network of grief camps, Camp Erin Tacoma combines grief education and emotional support with fun camp activities to promote healing. Remembrance projects help children honor and memorialize those they have lost. Age-based grief journey sessions help them develop coping skills, while activities like swimming and basketball foster joy amid grief.

“When children don’t address their grief, it can affect them for the rest of their lives, influencing their mental and physical health and the choices they make,” Duke says. “One study of incarcerated young adults found that one of the common denominators among all of them was unresolved grief from childhood. Experiences like Camp Erin are so important for helping kids tell their grief stories and start to process their experiences.”

Feelings in the Field

Duke, along with fellow Bridges staff, identified a need for enhanced programming at Camp Erin Tacoma for their youngest participants. To support their psychosocial development, they designed and launched Feelings in Field. This interactive grief journey program helps children ages 6-10 explore their grief and share discoveries with their peers through a series of activities.

“One of the ways children this age work through grief is through play,” Duke says. “So these activities are play-based and designed to help them put words to their experiences so they can express what they’re going through and find new ways to cope that support their long-term wellness.”

“When children don’t address their grief, it can affect them for the rest of their lives, influencing their mental and physical health and the choices they make.”

Feelings in the Field takes place in a large grassy area of the campground. Children progress through eight activities that build on one another. Some of the activities:

• Exploring the release of intense feelings by writing feeling words on a piece of fabric and watching the words dissolve in water
• Sharing about the confusion grief can cause by participating in an Izzy Dizzy Bat race
• Discussing how to seek help by playing a parachute game where everyone has to work together to keep balloons aloft

Feelings in the Field culminates with the creation of a calming jar that campers can take home with them, giving them a tangible reminder of what they experienced and learned at camp.

“One of the best parts of Feelings in the Field for me is just witnessing kids’ aha moments,” Duke says. “Those moments where their faces light up because they’re connecting what’s going on internally to some physical activity they’re doing.”

Perhaps the most important thing Feelings in the Field does, as well as other programming at Camp Erin, is instill children with a sense of hope.

“Year after year, what we hear repeatedly through our camp evaluations is that children realize they aren’t alone in their grief experience,” Duke says. “This camp is a powerful reminder that there’s a community out there that cares and wants to support them.”