By: LINN ANN HUNTINGTON
After a year’s hiatus, a special retreat designed to help children navigate the world of grief is back.
The Healing Kids’ Hearts Retreat has a new sponsor and will be held in a new location. But organizers say its purpose remains the same—to offer children who have suffered the loss of someone close to them a safe place where they can ask questions, express their emotions, and connect with other children going through the same thing.
This year’s retreat will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at the Bob and Pat Schmidt Community Center, 2510 Canterbury Dr.
Parents must register their children by Sunday, March 1. Families may call Jordan at (785) 623-6200, and a registration form will be mailed to them, she said.
The free retreat is designed for children ages 7 through 12 and will include lunch, said Myrna Jordan with Hospice of HaysMed, the new sponsor.
The day will include crafts, games, and other activities. Each child will be assigned a specially trained adult “buddy” for the day.
Doris Schmidt of Victoria, who helped organize the first retreat in 2015, said the event began after a grief support group called Healing Hearts was established in Ellis County to help families who had lost a child.
“This group brought together mothers, fathers, siblings, and grandparents, allowing them to share stories of their beloved child who had passed away. These families, united by grief, sought to support one another through the sharing of experience of their loss.
“Discussion many times was about the feelings the child’s siblings had. How could we create a space where children could express their emotions, ask questions, and connect with other children who were going through the same thing?” Schmidt recalled.
A task force was created, and soon the first retreat took form.
“The retreat would provide healing activities and guided conversation with a caring adult. Each child has an adult buddy with them to listen when they talk about their loss because so often the children don’t want to talk to mom or dad because they may make them cry.” The kids have already seen their parents cry a lot.
The retreat “quickly gained support from various community organizations, excited to help with the funding to help the children find healing,” Schmidt said.
That community support is still there, which is one reason the retreat has never charged families any registration fees through the years, Schmidt said.
In 2015, that first year, 17 children attended the retreat. Organizers now put a cap on enrollment at 20 children. These can be children who have lost a sibling, parent, grandparent, teacher, or close friend. Children who have attended previous retreat are welcome to attend again, as long as they fall within the 7-to-12 age range, organizers said.
One “adult buddy” recalled that the last time the retreat was held in 2024, the children made memorial stepping-stones to honor their lost loved ones.
One little boy asked if he could make some additional stones. When the “buddy” asked him why, the little boy replied that Grandpa had died, but his grave didn’t yet have a marker. There just hadn’t been enough money to pay for one, the little boy said.
The child wanted additional stones to make a marker for his grandpa’s grave. He got them, and the “adult buddy,” a senior citizen, got a big hug.