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CNN Live Today

Summer Camp Caters to Children of 9/11 Victims

Aired August 21, 2002 - 12:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: For the hundreds if not thousands of kids who lost parents in the nightmare of September 11, summer is just one more thing that will never be the same. But a summer camp in New England aims to make the season a little bit sunnier than it otherwise might be. Gabriella Bruni of CNN affiliate WRGB in Albany paid a visit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All campers and all counselors back to your bunks to wash for lunch -- thank you.

GABRIELLA BRUNI, WRGB CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is the sound of a typical summer camp, but the campers here are far from typical. Out of respect for the families, we were not permitted to shoot video of the campers, but they are the sons and daughters of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11 attacks.

JED DORFMAN, DIRECTOR, AMERICA'S CAMP: It is giving these kids an opportunity to just be kids, get away from the city, get away from all the attention, all of the pressure...

BRUNI: Jed Dorfman conceived the idea behind Camp America after losing a friend in the attacks.

DORFMAN: One night, just kind of had a brain storm out of nowhere that one thing I know how to do is run a summer camp. So, I proposed the idea to Camp Group, our parent company, and they said run with it.

BRUNI: Not only do the kids get a chance to swim and play ball, but they also have an opportunity to grieve and heal. One hundred volunteer counselors are here to help the kids through it.

BOB DITTER, CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST: We had a boy who used to go fishing with his dad. So when we say, let's go fishing, he has that memory, and that is the way it happens. And so we get to, like I say, it is kind of -- I call it "camp plus." We do all the wonderful things that camp normally does, plus be there for those kids when they have those moments.

BRUNI (on camera): Almost a year after the 9/11 attacks, campers continue to grieve, so many of them come here in the volcano room where they can express their frustration in a nonverbal way, like on a punching bag.

(voice-over): The volcano room is in the basement of this building, called Buddy Central, a place for kids to get away from it all, manned by grief counselors like Anne Lynch.

ANNE LYNCH, CENTER FOR GRIEVING CHILDREN: They are either working on a bag, or they are having a pillow fight, but they are working with another one of our buddies, our grief facilitators, who have had over 30 hours of training, and really what they are picking up on is how to release in a safe way.

BRUNI: From the cafeteria, the campers can be heard singing, voices that were once bonded in grief, unite in strength.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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