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Partners in Health & Well-being // The Nugget Newspaper // March 25, 2020
Camp Sunrise helps youth through grief By Jim Cornelius editor in chief
Losing a loved one can be a particularly devastating blow to a child. The trauma can create feelings of confusion, overwhelming sadness, loss of control, anger, guilt, and abandonment. For two decades, Camp Sunrise, held for a weekend each June at Suttle Lake United Methodist Camp west of Sisters, has been enabling children ages 7-14 to gather with others who have shared the experience of loss, to express and come to terms with their grief, and to learn practical means of moving forward. In 2019, 34 children participated in the camp. Sixty-five percent of them had experienced the death of a parent, and many are dealing with multiple deaths in their family. A third of the losses were traumatic deaths such as suicide or homicide. Rachel Delance, a social worker in Madras, attended the camp in 2003 and came back later as a counselor. She lost her father to a rare form of cancer when she was 13, and struggled to process his death. She worried about her own health and was teased at school. The experience of the camp not only helped her deal with confusing feelings of grief and loss — they shaped her future path. “It was life-changing,” she said. Seventeen years down the line, she keeps mementos of the camp — her camp T-shirts and a handcrafted “power stick” — and they are alive in her world. “I still have my power stick,” she said. “My kids play with it and we talk about Grandpa… For me, Camp Sunrise served as my memorial to him.” Shawn Diez was a counselor at Sisters Elementary School when he started working as a counselor
at Camp Sunrise. His first year, “I was in a cabin with, I think, five kids.” Today, Diez serves as a co-facilitator of the camp. He notes that counselors are extensively trained and they learn to tread lightly with the grieving youth, “kind of meeting the individual where they’re at.” “As you can imagine, many are nervous,” Diez said. Counselors learn to practice “reflective listening,” Diez noted. Their purpose is not to tell the campers how to feel or even to reassure them, but to “allow them to tell their story.” That story can be told through art projects, through plays and music, including the camp song, “Keep Me In Your Heart For Awhile.” “The brains of children younger than 14 are usually not developed enough to process this kind of information, traumatic or otherwise, in language,” Maureen Krebs, communications director for Hospice of Redmond explained. “At Camp Sunrise we provide children with nonverbal forms of expression such as art, movement and music in order to help them find a voice to these strange and often frightening feelings of grief. Grief has other faces, too, such as loss of a stable environment, and loss or change related to other meaningful relationships because the adults around the children are also grieving. Children at Camp Sunrise are most comforted by the connection they make with other children who are experiencing similar emotions. Maybe for the first time since the death they don’t feel so alone and different from their peers.”
photos provided
The release of handcrafted memory boats into Link Creek marks a release of emotional turmoil and grief. The event is one of the significant symbolic activities at Camp Sunrise.
“They gave me tangible coping mechanisms that I could use day-today,” Delance said. “Little things that really helped me process the grief.” Many volunteers return year after year. “It really amazes me the work they do and their heart for that,” Krebs said. Vo l u n t e e r e f f o r t s extend out into the community. East of the Cascades Quilters has stepped up for years. “Every single camper gets a quilt on their bed,” Krebs said. H a n d m a d e Te d d y Bears and other keepsakes offer Delance affirmed the role the counselors play in facilitating this comfort and connection. The broader community also process. “You don’t have to have supports the program financially answers or responses,” she said. through fundraisers and direct donations. It costs about $1,500 “You just have to be present.” She recalled the profound per camper to offer the program. “We do take donations, because impact it had on her to be around this is completely free for children others who had shared a similar experience, and counselors who and families,” Krebs said. Delance is an example of the were unafraid to simply sit with a deep and long-lasting resonance grieving child. the Camp “It makes Sunrise me tearful,” experishe said. ence has for I still have my power “These are a campers. It lot of amazstick. My kids play with i n f l u e n c e d ing people her career who really path into it and we talk about cared and social work were willing — where she Grandpa… For me, to stay in that sees trauma uncomfortCamp Sunrise served as and grief and able space.” can provide There is a resources. my memorial to him. remarkable “I refer blossomkids to Camp — Rachel Delance ing come Sunrise Sunday, whenever I which feahave a famtures one of the key symbolic rituals of the ily that needs those services,” she said. camp. Krebs said that youth usually Campers construct memory boats using all natural materi- attend Camp Sunrise about a year als — pinecones, sticks, flowers, after experiencing bereavement. “If it’s less than six months, birdseed, and paper. A procession of campers and counselors wends sometimes it’s a little too recent,” their way down to the shore of she said. The June weekend at Camp Lake Creek and each camper releases their memory boat, rep- Sunrise is a powerful experience, resenting the circle and seasons of both for attendees and for vollife. Following the boat release, unteers — taking them through campers gather to share their a gamut of emotions, forming thoughts about the weekend while attachments and most of all letting staff prepares them to return to bereaved youth know that they are not alone in their grief, that oththeir families. Siblings often attend camp ers are feeling what they feel and together, and some young chil- they understand. That can be a gift dren return to camp several years beyond price, and one for which Rachel Delance, like hundreds of later as they hit adolescence. “When they turn 13, they may her peers, continues to cherish. Camp Sunrise represents a probe experiencing very different emotions than when they were 7,” found effort to support the vulnerable and to heal the hurt. Krebs said. “It’s a huge benefit to our comThe impacts of Camp Sunrise last well beyond a single weekend. munity,” Delance said.
