Feb. 21, 2005 - 20:07 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

For The Kids

Something like this shows that there are people in the world who are doing things most of us should be connected with, I think.

In the Rocky Mountain News this morning there is an article by Janet Simons of the Rocky Mountain News. In full:

Sibling revelry

"A week at camp is more than just a chance for children to play games, learn new skills and experience the outdoors. It's also an opportunity to break from routine, get away from their families, stretch their wings and taste independence."

"Children in foster care often have different needs from most children. Although they enjoy camps as much as anyone else, children who have been removed from unsafe homes, separated from siblngs and , in many cases, shuttled among foster-care homes have no need to break from routine."

"For the past ten years, Highlands Ranch resident Lynn Price, 50, has been providing children in foster care with what they do need -- a sense of continuity as they become reacquainted with their siblings."

"At five campuses in North America, Colorado-based "Camp To Belong" offers foster children from the United States and Canada a week during which they can reestablish a sense of family as they enjoy the same camp activities as other children."

"More than 1,500 children have been through the program since it began. Price has received awards and recognition from Denver's 7 (TV station), CBS, Parenting magazine, Redbook magazine, Oprah Winfrey's Angel Network and the Points of Light President's Service Award, among others."

"Those awards mean little to sisters Alisha, 16, and Sara, 13, who attended last year's Camp To Belong session at the Anderson Camp facility near Gypsum (only their first names are used here to protect their identities.)"

"Since entering the Massachusetts foster-care system eight years ago, Alisha and Sara each have been in at least 20 homes, never together, according to their social worker, Nonie Bouthilette."

"It's estimated that three out of four children in foster care are separated from at least one sibling."

"The girls live 90 minutes apart and rarely get together. During one of those visits, they spoke on the phone in Bouthilette's office about last summer's camp. Both girls said they'd had fun swimming and horseback riding, and both thought river rafting was a little scary. They also agreed that the best part of camp was spending time with each other. "We made pillows for each other, and I'm still sleeping on mine," said Sara. "It was the first time I went to camp, and it was exciting. I liked it because it made me feel like one (whole) person. When I'm with my sister, I feel like a "regular" kid."

"Price knows what it's like to rediscover a lost sibling. She was 8 months old, and her sister, Andi Andree, was 1 1/2 when they were taken from their mentally ill mother in Illinois. Eight years later, their mother was released from a mental institution and requested visitation with her daughters. It was only then that Price learned that the people whe called Mom and Dad were foster parents and that she had a sister."

"I felt confused and lonely," she said. "Everything I had thought was stable turned out to be anything but. In the next 10 years, while Andi and I were pulled between our foster homes and the potential of returning to our birth mother, there wasn't any kind of commitment to helping us establish a relationship."

"The sisters didn't really bond until Andree invited Price, then in high school, for a visit at Northern Illinois University. "We realized that despite everything, we had a lot in common," Price said. "We're best friends today."

"Camp To Belong" is Price's way to offer foster children an opportunity to bond and build shared memories. Andree travels from her Illinois home to join Price annually at the Colorado Camp to Belong session."

"We have a great time catching up," Price said. "We also show the children how a sibling bond will last throughout their lives."

" The camp offers activities designed to help forge that bond. In addition to making pillows, they make gifts and celebrate all their birthdays at a big party that includes personalized cards, cakes and dozens of repetitions of Happy Birthday. "These kids can't share their birthdays during the year, " said Price. "This way, they can celebrate together one special night."

"Bouthilette says Camp to Belong has done wonders for Alisha and Sara. " Twenty homes," she said. "And never together. It's about as sad a case as any I know about." But at camp they were happy. They walked around the whole time with their arms around each other. "These kids had nothing -- nothing except that sister connection," Bouthilette said. "I don't think we'll ever know how important it was for them to get together for a week."

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A side article gives a bit more information.

Boosting family ties since '95

"The brainstorm for Camp to belong struck Lynn Price during the early '90s, when she was a court-appointed advocate for foster children. The first two camp sessions that reunited foster siblilngs were held at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, with 32 children in 1995 and 54 in 1996."

"Price moved to Highlands Ranch in 1997 and brought the camp with her. Eighty-eight children from Nevada and Colorado attended camp that year at YMCA of the Rockies."

"The program has grown steadily, adding camps in California in 2002 and Maine in 2004. This summer will bring the first Camp to Belong session in Massachusetts: Canadian kids will attend a camp in Kentucky."

"Camp to Belong borrows facilities from existing camps. This summer's Colorado session will be June 13 - 18 at the Anderson Camp near Gypsum. For information, see www.camptobelong.org."

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The reporters e-mail is [email protected] her phone is: 303-892-2547

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Perhaps it is because as an only child my soul, psyche, self (whatever) ached and longed for a sibling of any sex. At an early age I felt that a life needed siblings. I would see my cousins, one brother - three sisters and though they would fuss with each other, yet they were a team and stood by each other to the last person.

And yes, routine for kids, separated from their sibs, away from drear routine of daily life as they live it, is something they need to get away from, especially if they can be with a beloved sibling. Children from foster homes do have very special needs, obvious to me and others as well.

Tugged at my heartstrings when I read about them making each other pillows. Each taking the pillow made by their sib for them, home to have close to them when going to sleeep. I know how it would be with me, even now, "This is my pillow my dear sis/bro made for me, I lay my head down and am near you and you are in my prayers. About as close as a kid can get to a sib when they live apart.

It is thrilling to me to see someone doing something For The Kids . . . . . .

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