SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Seminole County is hoping to get results for kids and families still feeling the mental and physical impacts of Hurricane Ian.
Kids participating in “Project:Camp” this week at the Oviedo YMCA got to participate in a number of activities including outdoor sports and a visit from therapy dogs, and that’s because this camp isn’t like other camps.
“Project:Camp is a disaster response organization,” said Henry Meier, Project:Camp external affairs director. “We pop up free, trauma-informed camps for kids who have been impacted by disasters. Hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, things like that.”
The organization spent some time in Port Charlotte in 2022 hosting a camp for kids after Hurricane Ian. Its goal is to help kids process traumatic experiences, such as of going through a major disaster like Hurricane Ian, but to also give them a place to just be kids.
“It can be really traumatic when kids go through an event like a storm, like a hurricane; they kind of don’t have the language or the sort of experience to work through that themselves, so having a group environment when they have a group where they can do that together is critical to mitigating the long-term effects of something like that,” Meier said.
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The Oviedo YMCA is hosting the camp this week. Executive Director Chrissy Hoffman said it’s important to give kids a space to heal after an event like Hurricane Ian.
“I mean, what is more important than kids feeling safe, being happy, healthy in an environment that is very much for them?” Hoffman said.
This week’s camp in Seminole County is a trial run to put a plan in place for future camps should a hurricane or other disaster impact our community. Seminole County Emergency Manager Alan Harris said people are still feeling the impacts of Hurricane Ian.
“A lot of people from Hurricane Ian — we still have 12 RVs, families that are living in RVs outside of their homes because their homes are not repaired yet,” Harris said.
For Harris, bringing this program to Seminole County is personal.
“As a youth that went through some trauma — I went through a tornado when I was in middle school and some other types — there was no program like this for me,” Harris said. “I just had to deal with it and I wanted to change the dynamic here in Seminole County and we are by doing this program.”
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