Camp Kangaroo, a free camp to help kids who have lost a loved one, is coming to Renton.
On Sept. 14, at their office in Renton, AccentCare Hospice, in collaboration with Seasons Hospice Foundation, is hosting Camp Kangaroo in Washington for the first time.
The event is a grief camp for kids who have experienced the loss of someone significant to them, according to AccentCare Hospice Snohomish, King, and Pierce County Executive Director Katherine Hardt.
Hardt said the camp is not solely open to people who have lost family members — the participants just have to be going through a grieving process or have experienced grief. Camp Kangaroo is free and open to any kid ages 5-17 going through grief, Hardt said, and they do not need to be clients of AccentCare Hospice.
Hardt said they sought participants from the Renton area as well as in Snohomish and Pierce County. Hardt said they have a total of 14 registered campers this year.
“Children process grief differently, so we just would like to be a resource and a safe place for them to be able to come express that grief and give them some tools to work through it,” Hardt said.
Hardt said they’re still ironing out the full lesson plan, but the camp activity planning includes specific engagement activities tailored to the group of kids they have.
One example of how they tailor the experience is that the Renton Fire Department is attending Camp Kangaroo to do a demonstration, which Hardt said might be about how sometimes kids have metaphorical fires in their lives and how to take care of them. However, she said if at intake, they find a child who has had a traumatic experience with fires, they would not include an activity that revolves around a fire in order to not trigger the affected child.
“It’s different for each child and each person. Everybody experiences grief very differently. There can be anger, there can be denial, there can be sadness, you know, going down to depression. All sorts of things can happen. There can be withdraw, socially,” Hardt said. “We want to be able to say, ‘Hey, it’s okay to feel that. It’s okay to talk about, and here’s some tools to work with.’ Grief is a part of life, and it’s about how we manage it.”
Hardt said this year, they will do activities that incorporate grief counseling and processing. From there, they have lunch together, and then there is music therapy, Hardt said. To finish off the day, Hardt said they have an expressive art program, and the kids can take their art piece home afterward as a reminder that they’re processing a situation.
Hardt said kids can sometimes feel isolated because no one around them has experienced what they’ve experienced, so Camp Kangaroo can help them feel a sense of belonging.
Hardt said sometimes, as a survival tactic, people will try and forget about their traumatic experiences instead of dealing with them. But when people do this, Hardt said, what they feel ends up coming out in a different way. She said that through expressing how they feel about their grief and trauma in a positive manner, it won’t turn into a negative thing for these kids.
“We’re excited to offer this service, and we’re really looking forward to expanding it next year,” Hardt said. She said next year, they hope to offer more services for kids’ caregivers so they can also learn different ways to cope with the grief of losing a loved one.
