“Kourage Kids Camp” provides a day of fun for kids coping with the loss of someone they love

WASHINGTON (25News Now) - Kids and teenagers who have experienced the loss of a loved one had the opportunity to cope with their emotions Saturday at Camp Good News.

Carle Health Hospice provided social workers to act as camp counselors and spend the day with the kids.

They had plenty of fun activities such as ziplining, archery, arts and crafts, and therapy dogs to take the kids’s minds away from their loss.

Andy Belton is a licensed social worker for Carle Health Hospice who spent the day with a group of kids. He says the camp is a way for them to turn off their brain and have fun.

“But also hopefully learn some ways to better deal with that grief or to even talk about positive memories they may have had with a loved one, a lot of activities to just make some friends and just have fun and breathe a little bit,” Belton said.

The hospice workers also held grief sessions to let the kids express their emotions and learn to cope with them. They had a ceremony where the kids could write a note to light on fire and watch it float up as a way of talking to someone they may have lost.