Grieving families offered one-of-a-kind camp

Healing hearts

What: Camp Harmony, a free weekend retreat for families who have lost a loved one. Children must be 6 years old or older to attend.

When: Oct. 16-18. Camp begins on Friday evening and ends Sunday afternoon.

Where: Spiritual Center of Maria Stein in Maria Stein (north of Greenville).

Cost: Free.

To register or for more information:

MARIA STEIN, Ohio — Marlene Black isn’t a typical camp director.

In addition to supervising campfires, crafts and sing-alongs, she’s responsible for healing heartbreak, as well.

Black, a bereavement specialist for State of the Heart Hospice, is one of three co-directors of Camp Harmony, a free weekend retreat for families dealing with the loss of a loved one. The next session of the special camp is slated for Oct. 16-18 at the Spiritual Center of Maria Stein. Openings are still available.

This marks the fourth year for the camp, the only one of its kind in Ohio. It’s jointly sponsored by Black’s organization, the Children’s Medical Center, and the Generations of Life Bereavement Center, a service of Hospice of Miami County. Camp staffers come from all three organizations.

Last year, nine families spent the weekend at Maria Stein near Greenville. One of them was the Dahlinghaus clan from Vandalia.

“I didn’t think I could pass on it, I thought it would be good for the kids, a chance for us to revisit things,” says Sean Dahlinghaus, who lost his 41-year-old wife, Tammy, in 2005.

He and his three young children originally found help and comfort at Oak Tree Corner for Grieving Children in Oakwood, where they attended weekly meetings for a year.

When he heard about Camp Harmony, Dahlinghaus said he thought it would give everyone in the family “a chance to revisit things.”

And it did.

“I thought this might be a good follow-up for us, the kids are a little bit older and can probably get their feelings out a little bit better than they did before,” he adds. “I wanted to let them know that we’re not done talking about this.”

Dahlinghaus says staffers did a good job of mixing fun activities with serious conversation.

“The kids loved the campfire, we sat around and ate hotdogs and marshmallows the first night,” he says. “It was fun for them to sleep in bunk beds. There’s a pond. It’s a beautiful facility.”

Sometimes, he says, the whole family talked together. There were break-out sessions as well where the families got the chance to interact with other families who can understand. Kids got a chance to express themselves through art and games, families built trust in a challenge course. All are encouraged to bring mementoes of their loved one.

Black says families are welcome whether they’ve suffered a fresh loss or, like the Dahlinghaus family, some years have gone by since the death. Families who’ve attended in the past have lost siblings, spouses, children.

Sean Dahlinghaus says he lost both of his own parents when he was a child.

“Back then there wasn’t a lot of support for people who had lost a love one,” he says. “I wanted my kids to have every opportunity to get their feelings out.”

Black says that’s extremely important.

“We believe if you talk about your grief it’s a good way to heal,” she concludes. “A lot of times we know in our heads that someone we love has died, but that’s harder to get into our hearts — to realize that person is never going to come back. In order to heal you have to get it from your head to your heart.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or mmoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.