STANWOOD — Karen Moyer, wife of longtime Mariners pitcher Jamie Moyer, saw the impact a family member’s addiction can have on a child.
“I had custody of my niece for a year,” she said. Her mom was battling drug addiction.
Children growing up in such a home can experience a lack of confidence, a feeling that somehow they caused the problem and isolation that comes with thinking that there’s no one they can talk to about what they’re facing.
When Karen Moyer looked for a program to help her niece, she couldn’t find one. Moyer decided she wanted to find an answer, not only for her niece but for other children, too.
She and her husband had previously established Camp Erin. Since its founding in 2000, it has grown into a nationwide network of free bereavement camps for children coping with the death of someone close to them.
Karen Moyer wanted to apply that same idea — a free camp for kids dealing with tough emotional issues, for children between the ages of 9 and 12 affected by a family member’s addiction.
That camp, called Mariposa, will be available for the first time locally beginning later this month in Stanwood through a collaboration with Compass Health. The series of six weekend camps continues through June. The Stanwood camp is the sixth site established by the Moyer Foundation, with other camps in Florida, Indiana, Los Angeles, Pennsylvania and San Diego. The foundation plans to open camps in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans next year.
“We really are the only national program that offers a camp model,” said Brian Maus, Camp Mariposa’s program manager.
About 500 children have participated in the camps since the first one was established in 2007.
Many of the kids participating in Camp Mariposa have never been camping before, Maus said. Like any camp, there’s a variety of activities, including swimming, boating, hiking and an evening around a campfire.
It gives kids a chance to experience a sense of independence and a chance to connect with other children who have the same mix of confusion and conflicting emotions as they do.
“So often, kids feel that they’re responsible in some way for the addiction or responsible for caring for someone in their family with dependency issues,” said Megan Boyle, a program manager at Compass Health. “They know something’s different with their family, but they aren’t sure what.”
The camps are designed to allow kids to participate over multiple weekends. “For so many of the kids we work with, they didn’t know other kids who had a parent who struggled with addiction,” Maus said. “It’s a very isolating, lonely experience.”
An estimated 8.3 million children in the United States live in a home with a parent who has an alcohol or drug problem, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. These children are nearly three times more likely to be abused and more than four times more likely to be neglected, according to the federal Office on Child Abuse and Neglect.
The goal of the Mariposa camps is to not only help children cope with their family’s challenges but to help keep those kids from abusing drugs or alcohol themselves.
That’s because kids living in homes with addiction problems are much more likely to use alcohol and drugs themselves in early in adolescence and then go on to develop their own problems with addiction in young adulthood, said Kevin King, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Washington.
“If you can get kids to that age 18 and they haven’t tried drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, their chances of developing addiction, even with a family history, drops significantly,” Maus said. “The goal is to break that cycle of addiction.”
Compass Health has a three-year contract with the Moyer Foundation to run the local camps. The foundation is paying Compass Health $60,000 to get the camps up and running. Foundation funding declines to $40,000 by the third year, and Compass is expected to find ongoing financial backing thereafter, said Tom Sebastian, Compass Health’s chief executive.
The camps bring together kids who have had common experiences, making it a comfortable place to talk, Boyle said. “It’s a place they can feel listened to and heard,” she said. “And it’s a safe place.”
Aliyah Arroyo, 12, who lives in San Diego, has participated in a series of Camp Mariposa activities in her area over the past year.
A family member she previously lived with had problems with drugs, she said. “There was no one there for me. “She was never around, so I was always alone with my sister and brother.”
At Camp Mariposa, Aliyah got to hike, participate in art activities, watch movies and eat s’mores. But she also got to talk about her experience, to learn that the family member’s addiction wasn’t her fault. “There’s people there to talk to about it and they understand what you’re going through,” she said.
Her father, Arturo Arroyo, 36, who has custody of Aliyah, said she was able to see that other students had gone through similar ups and downs of life.
Some of her fellow campers had experienced major depression, he said. “She felt good that she was able to talk and vent and have fun. It was a positive experience. She was enlightened,” Arturo Arroyo said.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
More about the camp
Camp Mariposa, a free camp offered by the Moyer Foundation and Compass Health, begins this month for children who are living with a family member addicted to drugs or alcohol. The camp is free for children 9 to 12 and will be held at Stanwood-area camps.
Scheduled camp dates: Sept. 26-28; Nov. 21-23; Jan. 23-25; March 20-22; May 15-17; and June 12-14.
Compass Health is looking for volunteers to help kids at Camp Mariposa. Volunteers will work with Compass staff to provide educational activities, games, entertainment and support. Volunteers need to commit to working a minimum of three of the six weekends the camps are held.
To register a camper or for more information: contact Megan Boyle at 425-349-8153 or megan.boyle@compassh.org.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
