Article provided by: Heidi Owen, MBA, CFRE, CAPS Hospice of Rutherford County
Thursday, November 20, 2014 8:43 am

Hospice of Rutherford County conducted Camp Erin™ November 7 through 9 at South Mountain Chrisitian Camp in Bostic. This camping experience was for children and teens who experienced the death of someone close to them.

Fifty children from Rutherford, McDowell, Buncombe, Rowan, Wake and Iredell counties in North Carolina and Rock Hill, SC and Telford, TN attended the camp at no cost. The camp was made possible as the result of funding from The Moyer Foundation, local churches, civic organizations and businesses. Although some of the children and teens who participated had family members served by hospices, others had expereinced the death of someone in their lives through sudden incidents.

Camp Erin™ combined fun and a traditional camp with grief education and emotional support. Campers enjoyed the ropes course and climbing wall, s’mores, and campfires. Most importantly, the children and teens participated in multiple activities designed to share and discuss their loved ones and grief. Campers made masks to talk about what they felt on the inside and what was revealed on the outside, drew pictures of what their loved ones enjoyed doing, made keepsakes to remember the person they lost, and even wrote their feelings on pumpkins and smashed the pumpkins to synmbolize getting rid of those difficult feelings. At the end of camp, participants released balloons to remember their loved ones.

Hospice of Rutherford County staff and trained volunteers from all over North Carolina, South Carolina,

Virginia and Louisiana conducted Camp Erin™, formerly called Camp Rainbows. Hospice started Camp Rainbows in 1995, and began offering the expanded Camp Erin™ in 2012. Hospice of Rutherford County has been serving terminally ill patients and their families since 1982 in Rutherford, McDowell and surrounding counties, and providing extensive grief counseling for all ages since 1995. Please contact Hospice of Rutherford County at 828-245-0095 to find out about next year’s camp.