EP93: From 27 Kids to 2,000: How Experience Camps Grows a Grief Sanctuary

When Liza Buck followed a stranger's car down a dirt road into the Maine woods as an 18-year-old, she had no idea she was headed to a grief camp. She thought she was going to lifeguard. That accidental detour became her life's work.

Liza is now on staff full time at Experience Camps, a nonprofit founded in 2009 that provides free week-long programs for children who have lost a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver. What started with 27 kids in Maine now serves nearly 2,000 children a summer across 16 programs in 8 states.

In this conversation, Liza and Susan talk about what grieving children actually need, why the first question you ask matters more than almost anything else, and how a camper's fishbowl analogy captures something most adults spend years trying to articulate. They also talk about anger as a legitimate part of grief, the value of saying the words "death" and "dying" out loud, and what it looked like when a Binky Patrol blanket showed up on a 30-degree May night in Connecticut.

Liza shares how volunteers can get involved, where camps are located, and what families need to know about applying.

experiencecamps.org binkypatrol.org

Liza Buck

Liza has been a teacher, CAD counselor, and has been involved with Experience Camps since 2014, beginning as a bunk counselor and then operating as the Program Director for Experience Camps in California. In addition to her teaching degrees, she earned her MSW at the University of Maine and is a licensed master social worker. Liza has a passion for kids and mission-driven work which is why Experience Camps feels like “home.” When she's not doing "the best work ever," you can find her with her dog or baking cookies.

Liza Buck, LMSW  Senior National Camp Manager (she/her) 

(207) 554-0348  [email protected]

experiencecamps.org | @experiencecamps