by Ginger H. Porter

A dark-haired girl with big brown eyes selects a beautifully hand-decorated heart suspended from a tree by ribbons to wear around her neck. A blonde, blue-eyed teenaged boy puts a special photo in a memory box. Dozens of children and their families stand together to release heart-shaped balloons into clear blue skies. What are these children doing? Grieving.

Camp Bravehearts was established in 1999 by Methodist Hospice as a means to reach grieving families with children aged six to 16. The families must have experienced the death of a family member or close friend in the last two years.

The stories are diverse. Some children have witnessed fatal shootings or survived horrific car accidents their loved ones did not. Others have watched helplessly as parents succumbed to cancer or kidney failure. Some have lost siblings or grandparents.

“Camp Bravehearts is a safe place where children and their families can come to learn how to express their feelings of grief and to know that it’s not something that you just get over,” explained Dee Flood, Community Outreach Manager, Methodist Hospice. “Grief is a journey that has many twists and turns to it.”

Trained professionals and volunteers explore issues related to grief with the children and their families. Parents and/or caregivers learn about their own grief process as well as how to help their child. The three-day camp is held annually each June at St. Columba Episcopal Center in Bartlett.

Art is a recurrent theme throughout the day camp, as activities for children, parents or caregivers all use means of expression to remember the departed. Big tubs of art and craft supplies—glue sticks, paint, brushes, markers, beads, scissors, fabric, paper, glue—fill the common area. This becomes a safe place where feelings and memories are shared while hands are busy creating.

“Sometimes some of the best ‘therapy’ happens around the craft table,” said Flood.

At a recent camp, smaller campers created keychains and necklaces from lacing and beads as their parents and caregivers pressed colored shards of glass into mosaic patterns in wet cement for stepping stones. One recent widow developed intricate designs in purple and orange, each glass piece signifying a year her late husband worked at FedEx. A heart in the middle had a red glass piece for every year of their marriage.

Later in the day, a six-year-old pasted a copy of the yellow “Jeopardy” logo on the outside of his memory box, because that’s the show he and his granddad would watch together when he visited him in the nursing home. Then, all attendees got to use markers on pre-cut squares of fabric to draw a special memory of their loved one. Each year, squares are made into a quilt commemorating the camp (this month, Good Health’s cover showcases a quilt from Camp Bravehearts 2006.)

Attendees also participate in journaling, group building and music activities such as drumming and song writing. The culmination event is trying to scale a 20-foot climbing wall.

“We ask that each participant face the wall, which symbolizes their grief and their feelings.  Sometimes this process just feels insurmountable.  The goal is not to reach the top, but to face it and take one step at a time,” said Flood.

At the end of the camp, children have made friends who relate to their experience and sometimes, they autograph each other’s camp shirts or exchange phone numbers. All of the kids take home a memory box they created to remember their loved one. A balloon release at the end of camp helps them learn to “let it go.” Flood explained the counselors’ and volunteers’ jobs are to walk beside each one of the campers in their grief journey–to give them some of the tools to help them navigate on their own.

“We have had visitors at camp who ask where the tears and sad feelings are, because most of the time, these kids are having fun.” Flood said. “We explain that the kids don’t know each activity is designed to be fun, but with a therapeutic base.”

For more information on Camp Bravehearts, call 901-516-1744.