Comfort Zone Camp is the nation's largest bereavement camp for kids, providing FREE year-round weekend camps for kids who have lost a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. CZC has served grieving families from 47 states, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The camps are held year-round in Virginia, California, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Comfort Zone Camps create an environment where grieving children can have fun and break the isolation grief often brings.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Unable to Say No



My workout buddies at SEAL Team Physical Training, know that I only like to run for an hour.  Just an hour and I’m happy.  My SEAL Team buddies also know I’d rather do anything than run in a race. Just not my thing….way too crowded for my liking. Why then, did I decide to sign up to run 13.1 miles with the CZCrunsDisney team and 28,000 other runners at Walt Disney World? The answer is simple….I just couldn’t say no to Maggie.

Maggie Nick is one of our extraordinary volunteer Healing Circle Leaders.  A volunteer since 2007, Maggie arranges her work schedule to leave Fridays free for Comfort Zone Camp. In the last three years, she’s volunteered at more than 15 camps in VA and NJ. If you’ve ever met Maggie, you know that she is vivacious, friendly and totally devoted to helping grieving children transform their lives.

While Maggie never once pressured me to join CZCrunsDisney, I found myself unable to tell her no.  She had assembled quite a team….30+ strong from all over the country who had already raised over $30,000 for Comfort Zone by the time I was just thinking about it. I took a deep breath and signed up, even though I was plenty nervous about running those 13.1 miles AND raising money this way.  How was I going to be ready to run that far in just eight weeks? What if no one responded to my request for a donation? Why did I ever agree to do this???!!

I’m happy to say my SEAL Team buds came to my rescue.  They ran with me, sometimes as early as 5:05 am – yes!… five in the morning. They pushed me to run faster. Some ran with me from 6-7 am on Saturdays. And then even more ran with me from 7-8 am on Saturdays.  All of them encouraged me. And many of them donated money to Comfort Zone Camp….so much money that we are sending 10 kids to camp.  That’s an entire Healing Circle.  Maggie’s Healing Circle.  Maggie, the one I couldn’t refuse. I like the symmetry.

My congratulations to the entire team…those who ran the half, those who ran the whole and those who came to cheer us all on. Thank you to all who raised money for Comfort Zone Camp….  enough to fill an entire camp weekend with campers and Big Buddies.
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Lloyd
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