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CAMP RAINBOW
The Path to Positive Healing	Rob Grogan
March 2010 CAMP RAINBOW The Path To Positive Healing By Rob Grogan CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Hospice Support Care is now accepting applications for CAMP RAINBOW -- a free, overnight camp for children ages 5-12 who are coping with the death of a loved one… To apply, call Hospice Support Care at 540-361-7071. Please apply early, as space at the camp is limited. Camp dates: April 30 - May 2 at Westview on The James in Goochland, VA. A child loses a parent, a grandparent, a sibling, or a close friend. Their heartfelt grief is very often their first experience with such emotion and pain. This new and discomforting feeling is frightening and confusing. They miss their loved one. Sometimes they feel an unexplainable guilt about the loss. Emotions run high and silence often follows. They need to open up and pour it out. They need other children around them who are feeling those same dark feelings. They need adult help as well. They need a place like Camp Rainbow. That’s where Hospice Support Care comes in. Camp Rainbow is a bereavement retreat, free of charge to its participants. At the camp, the children are engaged in activities that run the gamut from peer discussions led by adult volunteers and professional bereavement counselors, to fishing on the James River; games, arts and crafts; drama, music, and the practice of journaling [which can be cathartic and ongoing long after camp has concluded]. The camp opens on a Friday. The participants stay in cabins on the spacious green acreage that is Camp Rainbow, about an hour south of Fredericksburg. The program concludes on a Sunday with a family gathering to celebrate the lives of the lost loved ones. Each child puts a message to their loved one inside a balloon, and their families join them for lunch and the balloon launch ceremony that serves as an act of closure for the grieving children, and their families. It is the final activity for the children of Camp Rainbow, children from throughout the entire Fredericksburg region. The staff at the annual camp consists of trained bereavement support staff and volunteers; some are nurses or school counselors; others are mentors, some of whom have experienced their own bereavement in the past. The mentors act as “Big Buddies” to their “Little Buddies.” The camp is their venue. Its purpose is healing. To Kim Rudat, Children’s Bereavement Coordinator at Hospice, Camp Rainbow is a place where “Kids come together in an atmosphere of fun and friendship, sharing their thoughts and feelings, and having them understood, repeated by other children their age, and taking steps on a path of positive healing.” HSC, located at 1701 Fall Hill Avenue, is a non-medical hospice funded by the Fredericksburg Area Service League, the Mary Washington Hospital Community Service Fund, and the Rappahannock United Way. Though not affiliated with Medicorp’s Mary Washington Hospice, the two have a symbiotic relationship for helping children, and Hospice Support Care has received referrals from Mary Washington in the past. To apply for Camp Rainbow for their children, parents should call 361-7071 as soon as possible. Front Porch readers can help, too: Donations are appreciated, and volunteer applications are available... Just call for a sponsor form and ask for Kim Rudat, to help put children on a positive path.
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