By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Camp Haven, a camp for youth who have lost a parent or a sibling to cancer, is expanding to include more youth.
Feedback during registration helped organizers realize other youth should be included
Organizer Tony Martinez says youth who have suffered any form of loss of a parent or sibling are suffering from the same sort of grief
"Because these children have to face life without one of their parents or one of their siblings that they've been used to seeing day in, day out, week after week, month after month, and all of a sudden that perso is pulled from thier lives," Martinez tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "And there's a certain amount of grief that goes through their minds, even questions in their minds about what happens after death or how do we go about doing things now."
Camp Farwesta Marketing Director Trish Heath says the camp is designed to help provide a distraction from grief for those youth
"We'll have folks there for that support, it's not really a counseling, we'll have some chaplains and some people to have the comfort support," Heath explains. "And really that's what it is, is more of that."
Camp Haven will run June 9th through the 14th at Camp Farwesta near Stewartsville.
Heath says the camp will provide a variety of activities for youth
"We've got some therapy dogs coming, lots of different things that will be available throughout the week just probably once, doing some tye dye shirts, some stepping stones and creating those," Heath says. "Then there will be lots of things in the evening and one of them being that we're taking them to the St. Joe Mustangs game."
Heath says KC Wolf will also be at the camp for the opening on June 9th.
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