Camp Firefly 2021

Our first Camp Firefly hosted twenty grief campers from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Camp Firefly was first created for children and youth from the North End and Central neighbourhoods of Winnipeg. In between the traditional camp activities and grief-therapy activities, we also offered Indigenous-based cultural activities too. We were honoured by the presence and performance of traditional drummers, singers, and dancers. They even brought the kids up at the end, and showed them how to drum and dance. For many of Camp Firefly’s organizers, the cultural demonstration was the most powerful part of camp.

In addition to the cultural demonstration, each camper participated in three grief therapy activities: memory frames, memory pillows, and an emotional final grief ceremony down by the river (which was spontaneously blessed by an eagle flying overhead). Campers also got to choose between the following camp activities: swimming and pool games, high ropes, wall climbing, basketball, and a big zip-line. We also had a professional face painter on site, two magicians, two comedians, and two live musicians who played calming music for us as we ate lunch. We had bubbles, lawn games, frisbees, water toys, squishy toys, candy guessing games, and so much more. Our grief campers had a lot of fun that day, to say the least.

And as noted on the home page, our grief campers made incredible personal progress, even just over the course of one day. Some of our grief campers had never even spoken about their grief before that day – not to their parents, their support workers, their teachers etc. And by the end of the day: every single one of our grief campers were making “memory pillows”, writing letters to their loved ones that died, and talking openly about their grief when asked about it. Camp Firefly 2021 was a huge success all around, and we are so incredibly proud of our grief campers for the bravery they showed that day. They laid the foundation for what Camp Firefly has become today, and we will always be grateful for them.