MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Dozens of families from all over South Carolina were invited to Myrtle Beach this weekend for an all-expenses-paid bereavement camp at Ripley’s Aquarium.
The Hospice and Palliative Care Foundation held Camp Hands of Hope for about 70 families who have lost loved ones within the last three years. The camp aims to especially help children through the grieving process. Yolanda Hiller and her 8-year-old daughter McKenzie came to the camp from Rock Hill, SC. Yolanda lost her mother, McKenzie’s grandmother, to cancer just 5 months ago. “From the call, letting me know that she passed till today, it has been a jagged roller coaster through thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, you name it,” she says.
This is the second time Hiller and her daughter have attended Camp Hope since experiencing their loss. Yolanda says she started preparing for the grieving process before her mother passed away. “My mother and I had a very very close relationship and McKenzie and my mother had a closer relationship. When you’re struggling as a parent to get through the process, sometimes it’s difficult to know what you can and need to do for your children.”
Whitney Crislip is one of the organizers of the camp and says most of the parents at the camp share that same feeling. “A lot of people don’t know what to do, what to say or how to have those difficult conversations so we provide a safe space for these children to deal with their emotions and better channel their anger, frustration.” She says the camp also helps grieving kids with feelings of isolation, like 11-year-old Vanessa Armstrong, who’s lost 4 family members.“I always thought I was the only one at school who lost somebody but really I see now that everyone pretty much loses somebody.”
Vanessa says the art projects have been the most helpful part of the camp for her, especially a letter in a bottle that she wrote to the family members she’s lost. “I said I miss you all guys. I wish you were here … I hope to see you in heaven one day. And I miss you all,” says Vanessa. And Yolanda says the friendships she and her daughter have made at camp have lasted long afterwards. “Even when we’ve had difficult times since the camp, we’ve reached out. And the craziest thing is when we were having a difficult time, they too were having a difficult time. So it helps to provide that support to each other.”
Though they haven’t decided on a date yet, the Hospice and Palliative Care Foundation will hold their next Camp Hands of Hope in the fall. For more information about the camp or to apply, you can go to http://www.camphandsofhope.org/.
