Camp Hope Returns To Warsaw July 18-20
June 23, 2023 at 9:49 p.m.
Camp Hope Returns To Warsaw July 18-20
By David [email protected]
The camp will be 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 18-20 at Warsaw Community Church, 1855 S. County Farm Road, Warsaw. It is for children going into first grade through seventh grade.
Registration is due by July 10 by calling Ryan’s Place at 574-535-1000 or visit online at https://ryansplace.org/programs/camp-hope/.
There is no maximum number of kids that can participate, so kids can be signed up all the way to July 10. In 2021, there were 45 participants and then 35 in 2022. As of Thursday, 15 were registered, but Camp Coordinator Cara Allebach said they were hoping to double that.
“If not, it’s OK. It’s not about the numbers for us, it’s more just about the intentionality of who’s coming, who’s made to be there and that sort of thing. That’s kind of how we feel about that,” she said.
Everything is free as United Way of Kosciusko and Whitley Counties provides all the funding for everything. The camp also has the partnership with Warsaw Community Schools whose food service and transportation departments provide the lunches and transportation for the kids who live within the WCS boundaries.
“That’s been really nice having those,” Allebach said. “... There’s a lot of families that either the parents are working or they don’t have transportation themselves to get the kids to and from. So, yes, it’s been really nice to have the bus system helping us out so we can get some of those kids that need to be there, there.”
Ryan’s Place, which has been around for over 20 years, is named after Ryan Gleim, who was a student at Manchester College (now University). He died in 1992. His parents, Rex and Nancy, were educators and decided they needed something for their other son to process his grief as there was nothing for him at that time. Ryan’s Place was started as a grassroots organization in Elkhart County and has grown from there. It is all volunteer-led.
Allebach said Camp Hope is for kids who have experienced the death of someone.
“It can be a parent, a sibling, a grandparent, another family member. We’ve had kids even attend that have just a family pet that was very near and dear. So it can be a wide variety of who has died. It’s just for kids who have experienced a loss,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be recent either. Sometimes, it may be the loss has happened years ago and the child has started to struggle all of a sudden. Grief is just that constant roller coaster of emotion. It’s never really over.”
Some of the kids coming this year are returning for a third year.
“So we’re doing a variety of activities that we haven’t done before so that those kids feel like it’s still a new experience and it’s not just the same activities year after year,” she said.
Planning for all the hands-on activities will take place next week, Allebach said. Spoonful of Imagination will be returning to do a special art activity with the kids. There also will be a drum circle.
Each day will have a different theme to it. The first day will be getting to know the kids and they will get to share about the person who died, along with the drum circle. Spoonful of Imagination will be there on the second day and the focus will be on coping with loss. The third day will be remembering the memories and honoring the loved one. In the afternoon of the last day, the campers’ families will be invited to come and do an activity with everyone to honor the person who died.
“This year, we’re having a few people come that actually are Ryan’s Place volunteers. So they work with Ryan’s Place in Goshen doing their programs, so they’re trained in grief counseling. And then we’ll have some volunteers who are returning, too, as well as here in the Warsaw area. Not mental health professionals, but people that are trained and know how to work with kids that are grieving,” Allebach said.
She said it’s really helpful for the kids to know that someone is going through what they’ve experienced and that someone understands their feelings. Camp Hope offers a safe space for kids to share what they want to share and listen to other people’s stories.
“It’s neat to see, camp is just three days, but from the first day to the end, the kids in each group get so close. They just really bond together and find and make new friends because of that shared experience,” Allebach said.
If anyone wants to assist with the camp, she said they can call 574-535-1000. All the volunteers go through a background check. There is a training meeting on the Monday evening before camp starts to go over some things about grief to equip the volunteers with information about some of the things that might come up during the week.
Allebach mentioned that this is the first year a former camper has returned to volunteer. When the former camper first started going to the camp she was in fifth grade. Now that she’s an eighth-grader and too old to be a camper, she asked to return as a volunteer.
“She just has a real heart for helping kids that have the same struggles as she’s had,” Allebach said. “So that’s really cool to see that happen.”
To make a financial donation, she said they can contact the United Way or Ryan’s Place directly.
Earlier this year, United Way helped fund a Camp Hope for Syracuse and one for Columbia City.
“I haven’t heard for sure if they’ll do that again like in 2024, but that’s just really kind of been a result of the need here being so great and then some people in those outlying communities saying, ‘When are you going to bring that here?’ or ‘How can we get that closer to our community?’ So that’s how that sort of rolled out, too,” Allebach explained.
For more information on Ryan’s Place, visit the website at ryansplace.org.
The camp will be 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 18-20 at Warsaw Community Church, 1855 S. County Farm Road, Warsaw. It is for children going into first grade through seventh grade.
Registration is due by July 10 by calling Ryan’s Place at 574-535-1000 or visit online at https://ryansplace.org/programs/camp-hope/.
There is no maximum number of kids that can participate, so kids can be signed up all the way to July 10. In 2021, there were 45 participants and then 35 in 2022. As of Thursday, 15 were registered, but Camp Coordinator Cara Allebach said they were hoping to double that.
“If not, it’s OK. It’s not about the numbers for us, it’s more just about the intentionality of who’s coming, who’s made to be there and that sort of thing. That’s kind of how we feel about that,” she said.
Everything is free as United Way of Kosciusko and Whitley Counties provides all the funding for everything. The camp also has the partnership with Warsaw Community Schools whose food service and transportation departments provide the lunches and transportation for the kids who live within the WCS boundaries.
“That’s been really nice having those,” Allebach said. “... There’s a lot of families that either the parents are working or they don’t have transportation themselves to get the kids to and from. So, yes, it’s been really nice to have the bus system helping us out so we can get some of those kids that need to be there, there.”
Ryan’s Place, which has been around for over 20 years, is named after Ryan Gleim, who was a student at Manchester College (now University). He died in 1992. His parents, Rex and Nancy, were educators and decided they needed something for their other son to process his grief as there was nothing for him at that time. Ryan’s Place was started as a grassroots organization in Elkhart County and has grown from there. It is all volunteer-led.
Allebach said Camp Hope is for kids who have experienced the death of someone.
“It can be a parent, a sibling, a grandparent, another family member. We’ve had kids even attend that have just a family pet that was very near and dear. So it can be a wide variety of who has died. It’s just for kids who have experienced a loss,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be recent either. Sometimes, it may be the loss has happened years ago and the child has started to struggle all of a sudden. Grief is just that constant roller coaster of emotion. It’s never really over.”
Some of the kids coming this year are returning for a third year.
“So we’re doing a variety of activities that we haven’t done before so that those kids feel like it’s still a new experience and it’s not just the same activities year after year,” she said.
Planning for all the hands-on activities will take place next week, Allebach said. Spoonful of Imagination will be returning to do a special art activity with the kids. There also will be a drum circle.
Each day will have a different theme to it. The first day will be getting to know the kids and they will get to share about the person who died, along with the drum circle. Spoonful of Imagination will be there on the second day and the focus will be on coping with loss. The third day will be remembering the memories and honoring the loved one. In the afternoon of the last day, the campers’ families will be invited to come and do an activity with everyone to honor the person who died.
“This year, we’re having a few people come that actually are Ryan’s Place volunteers. So they work with Ryan’s Place in Goshen doing their programs, so they’re trained in grief counseling. And then we’ll have some volunteers who are returning, too, as well as here in the Warsaw area. Not mental health professionals, but people that are trained and know how to work with kids that are grieving,” Allebach said.
She said it’s really helpful for the kids to know that someone is going through what they’ve experienced and that someone understands their feelings. Camp Hope offers a safe space for kids to share what they want to share and listen to other people’s stories.
“It’s neat to see, camp is just three days, but from the first day to the end, the kids in each group get so close. They just really bond together and find and make new friends because of that shared experience,” Allebach said.
If anyone wants to assist with the camp, she said they can call 574-535-1000. All the volunteers go through a background check. There is a training meeting on the Monday evening before camp starts to go over some things about grief to equip the volunteers with information about some of the things that might come up during the week.
Allebach mentioned that this is the first year a former camper has returned to volunteer. When the former camper first started going to the camp she was in fifth grade. Now that she’s an eighth-grader and too old to be a camper, she asked to return as a volunteer.
“She just has a real heart for helping kids that have the same struggles as she’s had,” Allebach said. “So that’s really cool to see that happen.”
To make a financial donation, she said they can contact the United Way or Ryan’s Place directly.
Earlier this year, United Way helped fund a Camp Hope for Syracuse and one for Columbia City.
“I haven’t heard for sure if they’ll do that again like in 2024, but that’s just really kind of been a result of the need here being so great and then some people in those outlying communities saying, ‘When are you going to bring that here?’ or ‘How can we get that closer to our community?’ So that’s how that sort of rolled out, too,” Allebach explained.
For more information on Ryan’s Place, visit the website at ryansplace.org.
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