Angela Hospice grief camp for children and teens continues again this summer.
For Jasmine Kendrick, Angela Hospice Children’s Grief Care Counselor, a place like Camp Monarch would’ve made all the difference as a young kid after she lost her mother.
Now, she’s part of the Angela Hospice Grief Care team, making sure no child in a similar situation feels alone like she did among her peers.
“They’re going to come out of this a little bit stronger, I think,” Kendrick said. “It’s necessary for them to see how normalized it is, instead of being shunned and kind of shielded from it. We need to kind of embrace it [grief].”
Angela Hospice’s Camp Monarch – taking place on Aug. 3-4 at Madonna University’s Welcome Center in Livonia – is for children and teens between ages 5-17 who have experienced the loss of a loved one.
This year’s theme is “Grief is Like a Jungle” to show that grief can be all over the place, a wild animal you have to tame, and will have four areas of focus: grief feelings, coping, remembrance, and moving forward.
This year a memorial activity has been added to the agenda as well.
“I think that it’ll be such a moving component,” Jasmine said. “They will really get to personify and see it in person, that we are not going through this by ourselves, there are other children that feel the same way I do.”
Compared to similar camps, Camp Monarch will not only have peer-to-peer elements, but have children and teens being provided clinical support from Angela Hospice social workers, a vital element considering how different the grieving process is for children compared to adults.
And a place like Camp Monarch isn’t a sad event like some may think, it’s an incredibly fun one, for kids and adults.
“It’s nice to be able to teach them that they can think about tough stuff and still have a smile on their face,” said Debbie Vallandingham, Angela Hospice Director of Grief Care Services. “I want this to be something that we’re known for.”
The two-day camp will be free-of-charge to those who attend, thanks to a grant from the Livonia Community Foundation, which also helped fund last year’s Camp Monarch.
For more information call 866.464.7810. Registration for Camp Monarch is open online here.
