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This sleepaway weekend offers comfort to grieving children.
Grief doesn’t take off weekends. But giving kids age 7–17 space to hit pause on heaviness and reconnect with joy is Comfort Zone Camp, a nonprofit founded in 1998 with a mission to serve grieving children. The program returned Oct. 3–5 to Camp Kanata in Wake Forest with its free sleepaway weekend for those navigating loss.
The impact is major: In 2024 alone, CZC hosted a record 31 camps serving 1,428 children with the help of 1,815 volunteers. Since the launch, the nonprofit has supported more than 25,000 kids across the country—all at no cost thanks to donors, sponsors and local fundraisers.
Regional Camp Director Katie Pereira explains the heartbeat of the program, “We provide free weekend sleepaway camps for children who have experienced a death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver.” The weekend connects kids with peers who get it. “We’re showing them that they aren’t alone, they don’t have to do it alone.”
For Pereira, the mission is deeply personal. “My dad was killed on 9/11. At camp, I didn’t feel like the kid with the dead dad. I just felt like a regular kid,” she recalls. “You could take down that armor and really just be yourself.”
And the need here is real—in NC, one in 10 children will lose a parent or sibling before age 18. That is why community advocates like Brooke Conn keep the mission going. A member of CZC’s NC Regional Advisory Council, Conn helps raise the big bucks needed to cover camp costs. “Each camp is pretty substantial for a cost… we can’t do camps without having campsites secured,” she says. Her team rallies support with cornhole tournaments, live music and movies at Village District’s patio series, plus proceeds from North Hills Beach Music.
But the real reward is watching campers transform. Conn—who has logged more than 20 camps since 2017—says the magic is when a kid arrives closed off and leaves Sunday in tears. “They don’t want to leave what we call the bubble,” she emphasizes.
That bubble only exists with serious community backing. For 60 campers, CZC recruits about 90 volunteers—everyone from big buddies to healing circle leaders to nurses. Want in? Spread the word, sign up to volunteer or show up at a fundraiser. Because in Raleigh, no child should have to grieve alone. comfortzonecamp.org
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