3:00pm
Comfort Zone
After Habitat for Humanity (and my marshmallow dream bar), Jen, Mom, and I visited Comfort Zone. We all love our family and rely on them. Sadly, you could lose someone in your family way too early. When you lose a loved one, you might feel angry, sad, and just about other emotion that you can think of. It’s not easy to talk about it. It’s even harder to continue to go on with life after they are gone.
Comfort Zone is a camp that provides a safe and comfortable environment for kids to work though a lot of these feelings. It is also a place where they don’t feel so alone. These kids are surrounded by supportive counselors and new friends who have felt the same things.
They come for a weekend, talk about what happened with people who understand, and something else – they have fun. They sing karaoke, swim, eat s’mores and have pillow fights. It is a place where a kid is not labeled as the one who lost their dad, but where you’re the one who tells great jokes or does a sic Dougie. Who knows who you can be by feeling safe enough to just be yourself!
And the cost – – – wait – — – it’s FREE to all campers. So everyone has a chance to go regardless of if you can afford it. That is amazing. Often this camp is the only help they receive because their family can’t afford counseling. I wish they had more.
One bad part, for each of the 5 camp sessions they run per year (max of 65 campers per session), Comfort Zone has to turn away 30 applicants because they don’t have enough space. So each year, in New Jersey alone, they have to tell 150 kids who are grieving that there is no room for them. I wish I could make sure that every child who is grieving could go to a camp like this.
Wow – with all these great organizations to choose from, it will be a really hard choice this year. So much to think about…
Now back to studying. Big Science midterm tomorrow and I have to get an A! Tomorrow we are visiting our last organization, Family Promise. I will let you know how it goes. Until then….. Science…..