The Camp Lloyd experience

Since 2006, Northeastern Wisconsin children who are experiencing grief over the loss of a loved one have come to UW-Green Bay’s Camp Lloyd to heal, learn they’re not alone in their situations, and to just be kids again.

And they’re helped along the way by UW-Green Bay students who serve as camp counselors.

The UW-Green Bay student camp volunteers — mostly Human Development and psychology majors — are there to spend the week with the campers to make sure they have a fun experience.

“They become their special buddy,” Prof. Ilene Noppe, the camp’s founder, said in describing the students’ relationship with campers. “They form a very intense, wonderful relationship, very quickly. The kids really look up to the college students, too. They’re really good role models for them.”

Before camp, the students learn about death and grief through special training sessions and from a course in death and dying taught by Prof. Noppe.

UW-Green Bay students receive three internship credits for participating in the camp as a buddy. Student interns usually have aspirations to go on in the counseling field, so the camp gives them valuable experience, Noppe said.

The students pay special attention to their camp buddies throughout the week, often resulting in continued communication and friendship long after the camp has ended.

For a video about Camp Lloyd, click here.

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Photos courtesy of Camp Lloyd staff