Kids at Camp Hero spend the week doing typical camp activities such as fitness challenges, playing on water slides, fishing, and even learning to cook outside, but they are not average campers – they are military kids.
For one week, Austin-area National Guard and Reserve kids came together for the 3rd Annual Camp Hero for Military Kids. The Camp Hero program was developed by The Comfort Crew as an opportunity to bring together military kids, ages 12 -17 and focus on building their social, emotional and physical resiliency, and creating an environment of peer-to-peer support within their National Guard and Reserve communities. Camp is designed to be fun and relaxing, but also allows military and National Guard kids the opportunity to speak openly about the rigors of having a parent that deploys and has to put the needs of our country before the needs of their family.
“It’s been a really hard time,” said 12 year-old Daismar, “He’s been gone for one-and-a-half years, but he is going to come back real soon.” When speaking about camp she added, “It’s really fun, and I feel a lot better knowing that other people understand and know what it feels like.”
In addition to the exciting camp events, counselor’s guide camper’s through military-centric activities like small group breakout sessions on topics like resiliency. Camper’s completed a stuffing event where they packed With You All the Way! Deployment Kits and wrote personal letters to elementary age military kids. Each day of camp featured a guest speaker and campers heard from grown-up military kids; CCMK Co-Founder and award-winning TV personality, Trevor Romain; and Camp Mabry’s Garrison Commander, Major Les Davis.
There are nearly 73,000 National Guard kids in the country that are experiencing deployment, and they do not have the same resources and support as families living on or near a US military base. In an effort to extend vital services to these families, CCMK has started extending their programs to these families.
“Sometimes these kids are the only kid at their school that has a parent in the National Guard, and they’re deployed as much as anybody else,” Trevor Romain said. “So to give them the support they need and the tools to be able to manage what they’re going through is so vitally important, and that’s what this camp is about. Obviously the stress of parents going to training and moving takes its toll, so we give kids tools to manage what they’re going through, feel supported and learn how to support each other.”
Camp Hero for Military Kids in the news!
Austin Camp Lets Military Kids Know Their Not Alone
Camp Hero Helps Military Kids Cope While Parents Are Away
To learn more about Camp Hero for Military Kids, visit www.comfortcrew,org/programs.html
Copyright © 2013 The Comfort Crew
