Helping abused, neglected children

The Royal Family KIDS Western Nebraska branch is hosting an open house this Sunday to inform the public and potential volunteers about their opportunities to help children in the area who have only known a life of abuse and neglect.

The information session will be held at the Christian Life Center in Sidney from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., according to Yvonne Donaldson, the program’s director.

Royal Family KIDS is a worldwide organization devoted to helping abused, neglected and abandoned children.

Every year camps around the globe are held by the association to help children who have experienced these situations.

Though nine to 10 camps are held annually in Eastern Nebraska, Donaldson and her team held the first camp for children in Western Nebraska last summer.

Donaldson said the meeting on Sunday is to inform the community how last year’s camp went and to inform those who were unaware of the camp that the program is still going strong and will hold another camp this summer.

The camp is for children ages 7 to 12 that have been in foster care and have come from unfortunate, harmful backgrounds, she said.

The camp is always held at an undisclosed location around the last week in July. Last year nine little girls participated.

“We had a small camp last year because we didn’t have enough volunteers,” the director said. “So this year our goal is to get more volunteers.Most camps will have typically boy and girl participants but because of the volunteers that we had, we had to stick with just girls.”

The camp is an overnight camp experience that lasts a week, she said. The children arrive around lunchtime on Monday and go home after lunch on Friday.

Typically one “big camper” or volunteer is assigned to each child for the week.

To become a volunteer you must be 18 years or older, have a background check and conduct an interview, and receive a total of 12 hours of training. Eight hours of training occurs a month before the camp and four hours of training is conducted the first day of camp.

Donaldson said that based on the size of this year’s camp facility she hopes that between 20 and 25 volunteers turn out to help.

“That would get us at full capacity and that would enable us to have about 20-24 children, which would be wonderful. If we could get boy volunteers this year that would be fabulous,” she said.

Children are chosen for the camp by communication between Royal Family KIDS coordinators and social workers from Sidney, Scottsbluff and Ogallala communities. Children must first meet the qualification requirements. Then social workers contact the child’s current caregiver to start the application process, Donaldson said.

At camp the children participate in numerous activities. Last year the camp included fishing trips, lots of craft projects, a fashion show, and a tea party for the girls, she said.

“The girls loved the tea party because it gave them a chance to dress up and learn how to sit at a table like a lady,” Donaldson said. “One of the little girls really embraced the idea of a gentlemen pulling out her chair. All of the meals thereafter she wanted the boys to pull out her chair.”

Last year’s camp also included a visiting Christian motorcycle association allowing the girls to paint their fingernails, and a birthday party was held for every girl and camper as well.

“A lot of these kids being bounced around from foster home to foster home have had no birthday parties or people to come to them. So at every camp everybody has a birthday party,” she said.

The week that children spend at camp can be life changing for the kids, the director said.

“You wonder what a week is really going to do for these kids but it is really huge. For them it’s a safety factor but also just a week to be a kid. They don’t have to worry about things,” Donaldson said. “They just spend the week playing and being encouraged, and it’s good for their self-esteem.”

“Our week is devoted just to encouraging them. These kids coming from abusive backgrounds don’t get a lot of positive feedback and don’t have a lot of positive role models,” she said. “So lots of ‘good jobs’ and ‘you can do its’ are said and we really encourage them to believe that they can be more than what their life has shown them so far.”

Donaldson said that much improvement could be seen in just one week at camp.

“It’s an amazing week. When the kids first show up there they are quiet and a little timid. For the most part they are nervous because they don’t know each other or their big campers,” she said. “But within a couple of days they were all getting into the swing of it and really enjoying themselves.”

The director said that last year one child that had developmental issues blossomed at camp.

“The kids were so neat in just blessing each other. The children encourage each other and surrounded the child and helped them come out of their shell,” she said.

Donaldson said that this Sunday’s information session will include a picture slideshow of the camp last summer and somevolunteers will also share their experiences. Brochures, flyers and volunteer applications will be available as well. The meeting is open to the public.

To volunteer for the camp information and forms are provided at http://www.sidney.royalfamilykids.org/or by contacting Donaldson at 308-249-6494 or by email at [email protected].

“My goal with this camp is to have it launch at least three others so that we can have these children in Western Nebraska better served,” Donaldson said.

“One of the little girls at our camp said that the best part of her week was knowing that she was safe. It breaks your heart to hear a nine or a 10 year old say that,” she said. “We want to let them know that God loves them and people out there do love them and care about them and want them to be safe.”