Circle Camps’ mission statement is reached by the three elements of our program structure: Community, Service, and Adventure.
Community at Camp (Rising 3rd-11th Grades)
Adventure (12th Grade +)
- Where our community begins – one week of summer camp in either Circle at Will-A-Way, Circle at EKC, or Circle at Tapawingo.
- Campers explore their grief through various activities. The personal journey at this stage is inward-facing. Circle Camps meets our campers where they are in their grief experience.
- Campers learn summer camp traditions, culture, and songs.
- Engage in summer camp activities like swimming, canoeing, kickball, tennis, soccer, arts and craft, and more.
- Leaders in Training I and II (rising 10th and 11th graders) practice how to become a counselor through leading activities, helping out in the bunks, and being role models for younger campers.
- Campers use the tools they've learned at camp to give back to the community through service projects. This part of their journey is outward-facing and encourages our rising 12th graders to utilize the work they have done on themselves to lift up others in need.
- Campers engage in practical skill building through hands-on projects, problem solving, and planning.
- This part of our program encourages a spectrum of leadership styles and provides opportunities for various personality types to lead through their own strengths.
Adventure (12th Grade +)
- The adventure portion of our campers' journey is inward and outward-facing and is for those who have just graduated high school.
- Campers partake in a backcountry wilderness trip where they gain skills like self-efficacy, map-reading, cooking, first aid, group leadership, resilience, and are able to improve upon their group-based leadership skills.
- Learning inner strength, female empowerment, and the concept of individual success = community success, campers are challenged both physically and mentally.
- Each evening ends with a camper-led "Circle Time."
Daily Schedule
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Reveille Breakfast a 7:30 am Three morning activity periods Lunch Rest Hour Three afternoon activity periods Free Period Dinner Evening Activity |
The camp day is a mix of traditional summer camp sports, grief-related projects, team building activities and leadership training. We take advantage of the skills of our volunteer counselors to offer additional activities including yoga, dance, equine therapy, canoeing, nature walks and much more. |
Grief Activities
- Circle Time - a time during the week where campers can choose to share about their person who died in the company of their bunkmaktes and a member of our clinical team.
- Our Moments - a collection of campers' writings and art pieces that are presented to the conselors at the end of the week.
- Greving Campers' Bill of Rights - a project where campers write down their needs as a grieving child. It expresses to others what a camper who has experienced the death of a parent needs from those in their community.
- Rock Ceremony - at the end of the week, all campers and volunteers participate in a powerful activity called the Rock Ceremony. Each person write a message to their person who died or to someone meaningful in their life on a rock and places it along hundreds of others in our memory garden.
Evening Activities
- Circle of the Stars - a talent show where campers perform for the entire camp.
- Camper Campfire - an end of the week recap where campers say goodbye to their Circle family. It includes singing, inside jokes from the week, and readings from our campers.
- Project Circle - a traditional Circle Camps evening activity where campers split into teams and dress their counselor up as a notable person in pop culture only using tissue paper!
Evening activities vary year to year, and the aforementioned three take place each summer!
Since our inception, approximately 1,300 grieving young girls have attended a Circle Camp. Campers are accepted in the program on a need-blind basis and attend camp at no charge. Volunteer counselors come from all over the U.S., range in age from 19-74, and have a return rate of 90+%.
Over the past 20 years, we have learned that hosting a group of grieving young girls in an overnight camp environment, supported by dedicated, compassionate volunteer counselors dramatically impacts the lives of the girls who attend our programs. We have also learned that the mental health community underserves grieving girls, in particular teens, due to the long-term nature of grief. Our four-year Leaders in Training (LIT) program addresses this gap in services.
Grieving youth and teens often feel isolated and removed from the world of their peers. The Circle program gives them the tools, support, and skills to cope with their losses and enables them to make lasting friendships with others who understand their losses. Circle is unique in its integration of age-appropriate grief activities into a traditional overnight camp program.
Circle creates an environment that is safe, supportive, and accepting so our campers can develop a healthy sense of self and lasting friendships with girls who understand their loss. Our highly specialized, age-appropriate grief programming, developed and implemented by a team of licensed social workers and psychologists gives girls and teenagers the tools and skills to cope with their losses.
