Archives: Stories

Special day, summer 1, 2017. Wonderful memories in the sunshine.

Seeing the families at bereavement camps being able to smile again. Making a difference in their lives. I love to listen to their stories as most people are afraid to listen to them.

During Bereavement camp, having a father showing us the pictures of his daughter, when just two days earlier he had said he did not want to talk about her at all

Hearing a camper talk about how he feels when he enters camp, he is no longer the sick kid. He is like everyone else. A place where he can make friends and forget about everything else. Hearing him say this and seeing him smile. Magic is real. Its just at barretstown.

Seeing the kids just have fun and all the laughs, it’s brilliant

Seeing the happy faces of all the mums who got a special present for Mother’s day during a family camp

My magic moment at camp was at the last night of a summer session, everyone was at the dining hall, a camper was doing karaoke of a Greek song, everyone was cheering him, people were dancing around him and connecting through movement!! I absolutely got chills!!

My magic moment at camp was seeing the children with EB enjoy the horse riding at camp . This was so special as the families explained that they never imagined their children taking part in such activities

Watching the children’s confidence and self esteem grow from the start of camp to the final day.

I was a volunteer at a family camp in March 2020 and it was just absolutely amazing to see three teenager siblings and their parents come out of themselves, relax and throw themselves totally into the Barretstown experience. The sheer joy on everyone’s faces especially at dance for your dinner. It was an amazing experience, … Continued

On the Saturday at dinner walking into the dining hall to ‘be our guest’ and all the caras lining the way in. It was amazing 😍🥰

The Sweeney girls couldn’t believe it when their Daddy finally let the magic of Barretstown in 💫💫💫 and danced very enthusiastically for his dinner 🙂🙂🙂💜💜💜

Magic moment is to see a family arrive step out of their comfort zone a little and enjoy camp and what it has to offer.

2 magic moments stand out for me! At family camp the parents were canoeing and one of the games the parents played was football, in the canoes! And at the parents evening playing the spoons game. Well it was such a laugh. Moments like that make you forget the reason why you’re actually at Barretstown.