Camp for children of wounded, lost warriors fills need
Water safety adventures are part of the regimen at Kids of Our Heroes Adventure Camp near Jenkins. Above, a camper jumps from a boat in preparation for swimming to shore.
July 7
Ezra DeVore
Kids of Our Heroes Adventure Camp, a free camp for the children (ages 11 - 17) of Fallen Heroes and Wounded Warriors, was founded by Darrel and Michelle Hovland in 2013.
Darrel served 22 years of active service in the Army, before retiring out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as Chief Warrant Officer 3. His wife, Michelle, served 30 years, and was the first female Brigade Commander in the Missouri National Guard.
“Michelle always wanted to do some kind of kids’ camp,” said Darrel. “She served in the California Guard and was the Commandant for Angel Gate Academy, a program for inner-city kids who were failing in school - to turn them around, to get them on the straight and narrow - and Michelle wanted to start a similar organization in Missouri when she returned from duty.”
“We went to a lot of memorials,” continued Darrel Hovland, “with the kids sitting up on the front row, not knowing what was going to come next after losing a parent. So, we wanted to do a kids’ camp for military kids who had lost a parent or sibling in the War on Terror, or whose parent was wounded with seen or unseen wounds. PTSD, because you can’t see the wound, is harder to deal with because the kids don’t understand why their parent isn’t the same, ‘Why don’t they play with me like they did?’ Also, kids who lost a parent due to suicide as a result of their service.”
Kids of Our Heroes Adventure Camp is certified in Missouri as a nonprofit organization, with all counselors licensed, or holding a Masters in Counseling. With a maximum of 16 campers per camp, counselors can attend more personally to each child. The camp is also designed to help the campers defeat fear, “because if they can face and overcome their fears,” Darrel said, “they can overcome just about anything in life.”
Each day is structured around an adventure, anything from cave tours to zip lines, paired with a coping skill, a counseling theme and Bible verse. At twilight, the group speaks of the day’s lessons over the crackling embers of a campfire. Each night, they hold a flag-lowering ceremony, and pray before all meals. Funded solely by private donations, the camp does not accept grant money from the government.
Darrel and Michelle Hovland own the property the camp is held on, and they built the facility themselves in 2013, with the first camp held in 2014. The campsite is nestled beside Flat Creek in Jenkins, and currently has children in attendance from all over the country: Alabama, North Carolina, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
Kids of Our Heroes hosts two week-long camps every summer. The first was held June 13 - 19; the second one will be held July 11 - 17.
For more information about Kids of Our Heroes Adventure Camp, please visit their Facebook page.
Ezra DeVore
Kids of Our Heroes Adventure Camp, a free camp for the children (ages 11 - 17) of Fallen Heroes and Wounded Warriors, was founded by Darrel and Michelle Hovland in 2013.
Darrel served 22 years of active service in the Army, before retiring out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as Chief Warrant Officer 3. His wife, Michelle, served 30 years, and was the first female Brigade Commander in the Missouri National Guard.
“Michelle always wanted to do some kind of kids’ camp,” said Darrel. “She served in the California Guard and was the Commandant for Angel Gate Academy, a program for inner-city kids who were failing in school - to turn them around, to get them on the straight and narrow - and Michelle wanted to start a similar organization in Missouri when she returned from duty.”
“We went to a lot of memorials,” continued Darrel Hovland, “with the kids sitting up on the front row, not knowing what was going to come next after losing a parent. So, we wanted to do a kids’ camp for military kids who had lost a parent or sibling in the War on Terror, or whose parent was wounded with seen or unseen wounds. PTSD, because you can’t see the wound, is harder to deal with because the kids don’t understand why their parent isn’t the same, ‘Why don’t they play with me like they did?’ Also, kids who lost a parent due to suicide as a result of their service.”
Kids of Our Heroes Adventure Camp is certified in Missouri as a nonprofit organization, with all counselors licensed, or holding a Masters in Counseling. With a maximum of 16 campers per camp, counselors can attend more personally to each child. The camp is also designed to help the campers defeat fear, “because if they can face and overcome their fears,” Darrel said, “they can overcome just about anything in life.”
Each day is structured around an adventure, anything from cave tours to zip lines, paired with a coping skill, a counseling theme and Bible verse. At twilight, the group speaks of the day’s lessons over the crackling embers of a campfire. Each night, they hold a flag-lowering ceremony, and pray before all meals. Funded solely by private donations, the camp does not accept grant money from the government.
Darrel and Michelle Hovland own the property the camp is held on, and they built the facility themselves in 2013, with the first camp held in 2014. The campsite is nestled beside Flat Creek in Jenkins, and currently has children in attendance from all over the country: Alabama, North Carolina, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
Kids of Our Heroes hosts two week-long camps every summer. The first was held June 13 - 19; the second one will be held July 11 - 17.
For more information about Kids of Our Heroes Adventure Camp, please visit their Facebook page.
Campers enter Kids of Our Heroes Adventure Camp, near Jenkins, via a swinging bridge. “It becomes easier with each crossing,” said one camper.
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Campers participate in a long float trip down Flat Creek as one of their Kids of Our Heroes Camp adventures.
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