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In addition to Camp Courageous Youth, Hope Hospice recently announced a weekend bereavement retreat offered to grieving parents with the support of the McKenna Legacy Foundation. The camp is known as Camp Courageous Parents.
Both camps are free of charge and include all meals and overnight accommodations. They are planned for the weekend of Oct. 23 and will be available to kids ages 7-17 and parents to attend separately. Parents/guardians are asked to complete an initial registration form by Sept. 24 and a screening interview is required.
Campers are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis after it is determined that they are emotionally ready to participate in and benefit from camp. Priority will be given to kids and parents who have not yet attended Camp Courageous. Registration forms available at www.hopehospice.net
On the weekend of the 23, parents will check their children in at the Hope Hospice administrative building where busses will be waiting to take the youth to John Knox Ranch in Fischer. After dropping off the kids, parents will then go to Slumber Falls in New Braunfels for the Camp Courageous Parents weekend bereavement retreat.
Camp Courageous Youth will begin with the arrival of the busses at John Knox Ranch where campers will check into their cabins and meet each other at the opening ceremony. Each child will have the opportunity to tell the rest of the campers who they are there to remember and sign the Memory Wall. Campers will be assigned to groups according to age.
Within their groups, campers will have the opportunity to participate in art and leisure activities. Art activities are all geared toward remembering their loved ones and learning healthy coping techniques. Leisure activities give campers a chance to build relationships with their peers who have been through a similar experience or to reflect on the healing surroundings of the outdoors.
All groups will be geo-caching and fossil hiking and older campers will participate in high-ropes courses. Saturday evening will feature all the standard camp fare of a campfire, skits, sing-alongs and s’mores.
Sunday will continue the art and leisure activities as well as preparations for the closing ceremony where each child will launch a memorial canoe into the Blue Hole, which feeds into the Blanco River.
Memorial Canoes are decorated by the campers and often feature messages to or about their loved ones. This year they will also contain flowers donated by the Comal Flower Shop. Following the closing ceremony, busses will take campers back to New Braunfels to meet their parents.
Each camp ends with a parent meeting to give parents an idea of what the camp experience included and behaviors that may be expected of campers after their camp experience. The parent meeting also provides parents an opportunity to have questions answered and meet other parents.
Camp Courageous Parents will follow a similar model to Camp Courageous Youth in that parents will be divided into groups for art and leisure activities. Parents are often grouped into similar types of loss or family situations.
The camp will focus on ways to parent while grieving and self-care for caregivers. Small groups will give parents an opportunity to hear coping techniques from other parents and to receive mutual support. Parents will also have time to relax and rejuvenate during the camp retreat. Camp Courageous Parents will have a closing memorial ceremony Saturday evening with floating candles lit in honor of their loved ones.
Sunday morning concludes Camp Courageous Parents as parents head back to Hope Hospice to pick up their children and attend the post-camp parent meeting.
Although they complement each other, each camp is available separately to parents and youth. Kids whose parents are not attending and parents whose children are not attending are all welcome to attend camp.
