Camp Widow® is Headed to Canada

August 21, 2014 - When Michele Neff Hernandez launched Camp Widow® in San Diego, California in 2009, it was for a simple purpose – to offer the widowed community a place to gather and hope, and to provide resources and tools for rebuilding their lives following the loss of a loved one. She never imagined that widowed people from around the world - from places like the United Kingdom, Kenya, Singapore, Australia, Ireland, India, Iraq, and Canada would travel so far because they wanted to attend this event so badly. After six years and nine camps, Ms. Neff Hernandez felt the time was right to offer the first international Camp Widow®; and on September 26-28, Camp Widow® Canada will be held in Toronto at the Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre.

Why was Canada selected as the first international location? "We have had such a strong contingency of Canadian campers at every single Camp Widow® event in the U.S. and every year they have asked how can we bring this event to Canada," said Ms. Neff Hernandez, executive director and founder of Soaring Spirits International, the official host organization for Camp Widow®. "It just made sense to bring the first international Camp to that Country."

So what can campers expect at Camp Widow® Canada? The schedule includes a very unique workshop called Discovering the Labyrinth: Grief Walking. This session is very interactive and will provide participants with a general understanding of what labyrinths are and how they work; and most importantly how the labyrinth is one of the best experiential tools available to process grief. The Toronto Public Labyrinth is the location for this session and the facilitators of the Public Labyrinth are thrilled to welcome Camp Widow® to the site for what promises to be a moving and intense session.

Other workshops, seminars and round-table discussions will focus on topics, such as Leaning into Love; Rituals of Self-Support and Healing, My Children Never Met Their Father/Mother and Taking Care of Your Body to Take Care of Your Heart; featuring renown presenters on the subject of grief from the U.S. and Canada. Camp Widow® is the only such program of its kind in the U.S. and globally; and it is unique in that it is all inclusive and covers every aspect of widowhood, from the newly widowed and the widowed not legally married, to LGBT widowed to the parents of widowed children and more.

Camp Widow® Canada is made possible thanks to a joint grant between the Rotary Club of Simi Valley, California and the Rotary Club of Burlington, Canada; which was approved by Rotary International. "Soaring Spirits is so grateful for the support of these organizations, as well as local support from the Hummingbird Center for Hope in Toronto. For Soaring Spirits, taking Camp Widow® to the international level is the beginning of our recognizing the global need for this program. Our hope is that we will be able to expand to other countries eventually," said Miss Hernandez.

Registration for Camp Widow® Canada is available online at www.campwidow.org, click on the registration tab. The cost for the event is as follows: $375 for full event regular registration; $325 for full event group registration; $300 for full event International registration, and $150 for one day registration. Full event registration includes: the option to attend the introductory workshops on Friday, one ticket to the Friday evening Welcome Reception; admission to the Saturday morning keynote address; a choice of four workshops on Saturday from a list of presentations designed to address the specific needs of the widowed
community; access to the event bookstore; one ticket to the Soaring Spirits Formal Anniversary Celebration Banquet; and one ticket to the farewell breakfast.

For more information about Camp Widow® visit the website at www.campwidow.org. To hear testimonials from campers who attended the recent Camp Widow® held in San Diego, California click on the following links:

http://www.campwidow.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Kelley_Lynn.jpg
http://www.campwidow.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Bruce.jpg

About Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation:
Soaring Spirits International was established in May of 2008 to provide a unique peer-based support community for grieving people. This segment of the bereaved community has been underserved and often overlooked. SSI aims to change that by leveraging a social-media-based infrastructure with key programs designed to inspire, inform, comfort, and provide practical help for the bereaved. For more information about SSI visit the website at www.soaringspirits.org. SSI is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit corporation based in Simi Valley, California. Follow us on Twitter at @soaringspirits and Facebook at Soaring Spirits Loss Foundation.