Potluck Will Celebrate Adoptions

Sun., July 25, 1999

“Touched by adoption picnic,” sponsored by the Children’s Home Society of Washington, will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 3 in the Manito Park picnic shelter.

As its theme suggests, the event is a time of togetherness for those who have been touched by adoption in any way: for those who have been adopted, adoptive parents, birth parents, adoptive grandparents, siblings.

It’s a potluck picnic, and participants are asked to bring a dish to share, said Suzanne Apelskog, program coordinator.

Call Apelskog at 747-4174 to RSVP for the event. If the recorder’s on, leave your name, the number of people who will attend, the potluck dish you’ll bring, and your telephone number.

Picnickers are also asked to bring “blankets or lawn chairs and a zest for fun,” Apelskog said. Beverages will be provided.

For more information, call the telephone number listed above.

Finding closure

Camp Chmepa, a Hospice of Spokane organization, offers a special weekend camp for children 7 to 15 years old who are grieving the death of someone close.

The first definition of “chmepa,” a word from the Spokane Indian language, means a place where two rivers come together to meet, blend and become stronger, said Isabelle Green, spokeswoman.

The word’s next two meanings are “a special place of inclusion” and “symbolic of a circle into which family and friends can enter.”

The camp, from 4 p.m. July 30 to 1 p.m. Aug. 1 at Lutherhaven on Lake Coeur d’Alene, will be staffed with Hospice of Spokane professionals.

Camp Chmepa’s focus is to help children and young people recognize they are not alone in their grief and that having fun is a part of healing.

For more information, call Hospice at 456-0438.

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