The Kids Need Us — Make Time to Volunteer

How a weekend camp is changing lives across the United States.

Photo by Midjourney

1 in 11 U.S. children (6.4 million) will lose a parent or sibling by age 18.

[source]

That math means about 1,040 children join this statistic every single day. Today included. It’s hard to pen those words into an article. I read that statistic multiple times before it actually registered. My brain kept trying to make it smaller, less overwhelming, and make it someone else’s problem.

Because if I really sit with it, if I really think about 1,040 kids waking up today to a world where their person is just gone, I have to ask myself what I’m doing about it. That’s uncomfortable. Because I know for myself, I haven’t done much in my 45 years, if anything.

And we’ve built a society that’s really, really good at advancing our careers, and really, really bad at helping people grieve.

Especially kids.

Where does a 10-year-old whose mom just died take that grief? Who’s sitting with them at 2 am when they can’t sleep because they keep replaying the image of finding their dad, who had just taken his life? Who’s telling them it’s okay to cry at school, soccer practice, dinner, or…