by Meta Machulis

“What’s the weather like right now? It looks like it’s going to storm? How do you feel about that?”

These are some of the questions Rev. David Miller asked the approximately 20 children who were gathered Wednesday morning, June 23, at St. Patrick’s Parish Hall, Dwight, to take part in Camp Noah. The weeklong day camp was being held to help children who were affected by the June 5 tornadoes in Dwight and the surrounding area.

“Camp Noah, a program supported by Lutheran Disaster Response, is designed to help children process their feelings and fears following a disaster and allow children an emotional break from recovery through play and recreation,” according to the Lutheran Disaster Response website. The ecumenical program was administered June 21 through 25 in Dwight by 18 teen and adult volunteers from St. Timothy Lutheran Church of Naper-ville.

Although Camp Noah is geared toward first- through sixth-graders, the children also included one kindergartner and one eighth-grader as of last Wednesday, and participation was growing each day. Most children were from the Dwight area, although children affected by the Streator tornado were also being invited to attend.

Susie Merrihew, a social worker who serves as Camp Noah’s mental health professional, said the children who attended the camp included “kids who have relatives who have had their places destroyed, or former places that they lived – so you’ve got direct victimization, and then you’ve got the secondary piece of it, where your whole community was affected – where they lost something specifically or they knew someone (who lost something).” She said that just hearing about the tornado caused many children to have heightened fears about storms and that the camp helps give them the tools they need to work through those fears. Pastor Miller added that new traumas, such as the tornado, often stir up feelings of traumas children experienced earlier in life. The camp gave kids the freedom to talk about whatever was bothering them – not just storms.

Activities each day started with a “large group meeting that might involve songs, sharing of what they learned the day before, and there might be questions about their feelings about what happened to them or what they’ve seen happen to others,” Miller said. “That normally flows into a skit, and we use the Noah story about storms and floods and things that hurt and frighten us, but in a very lighthearted way, to talk about being prepared (and)  to  talk  about   God’s

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care for their family and for them.” He added, “It gives them space to feel their feelings, name their feelings and begin to process that.”

The children then broke up into smaller groups each day based on age for activities such as crafts and storytime. Merrihew said the goal was for the children to have “resiliancy by the end of the week.”

Abby Tyler of Dwight, who will enter fifth grade this fall, participated in Camp Noah.

“I’m having a lot of fun,” she said. “We get to play a lot of games.” In addition to learning about the type of wood that was used to make Noah’s ark, Abby said, “If we get mad, we learned a move that will help us go to our ‘happy place.’”

Learning how to visit her own ‘happy place’ was also a favorite activity mentioned by fellow fifth-grader Kirsten Oelschlager.

And Brooke Bossert, who will soon enter sixth grade at Dwight Grade School, said, “We learned how to respect other people more and (respect) their feelings. We learned that everybody’s different, but they’re still special, and we learned that everybody can be friends.”

Mike Mittlestadt, team leader of Camp Noah, explained that the camp “was developed by Lutheran Social Services in Minne-sota. They started the program in 1997 in response to flooding in the Red River Valley.” Five years ago, when hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast, Camp Noah expanded into a national program, Mittle-stadt said. In June 2006, volunteers from St. Timothy Lutheran became the first national volunteer team, helping Hurricane Rita victims in Lake Charles, La.

“Because it was such a positive experience for us, we’ve always wanted to do another one,” Mittlestadt said.

The volunteer group from St. Timothy found out about the Dwight tornado through Merrihew, whose sister is Tracy Karstens of Dwight. The volunteers had planned to host Camp Noah in Wisconsin this week, but when that fell through, they decided June 16 to come to Dwight. That only left a few days to organize and spread the word, but “with Tracy putting her good name behind us, it allowed us to get the kids in here,” Mittlestadt said.

Pastor Miller said the Dwight churches also played a big role, along with the entire community.

“There’s been a lot of community involvement,” Miller said. “It’s one of the strengths of a lot of smaller communities…because it’s hard to get three or four steps removed from the situation. You know people who were in the trailer park; you know people who were affected; you know people who were in one way or another traumatized or felt the emotions and had the damage.”

Dwight pastors also helped with the effort to get people involved with the Camp, and churches in Dwight, Pontiac and Flanagan provided snacks for the campers.

“This is a very life-giving, life-enhancing ministry,” Pastor Miller said. He added, “We understand our call from God to be part of that life-giving work of God in the world.”