Bucks Camp Helps Youngsters Dealing with Addiction in the Family

Bucks camp helps youngsters dealing with addiction in the family

Lori Murphy gets a hug from daughter Mackenzie as they check in at Camp Mariposa in Quakertown. In the background is her other daughter, Maddy. (RON CORTES / Staff Photographer)

By Kristin E. Holmes, Inquirer Staff Writer POSTED: JUNE 10, 2013

At Camp Mariposa, Mackenzie and Maddy Murphy talk about their deceased father in the abstract. He's the "addicted person."

He was the fun parent who turned into an erratic recluse before dying of complications from his drug and alcohol addiction at 53.

Lori Murphy didn't think her 12-year-old twin daughters understood the reason their father tried in his bizarre moments to put clothes on a pillow or play baseball with his children while they were getting ready for school.

But when Murphy dropped off her daughters at the Quakertown camp, they told her, "We knew."

At that moment, Murphy explained their presence at the camp. The free weekend of outdoor activities combined with therapeutic games and conversation is designed for youngsters dealing with addiction in the family.

"Every day of my life, I worry about how this will affect my children," Murphy, 51, of Jamison, said. "I hope the camp will help them make good choices."

Camp Mariposa was founded five years ago to give youngsters such as the Murphy girls a way to express their feelings and teach them to cope. During a three-day camp offered six times a year, youngsters dealing with addiction in the family meet and share with others who have similar experiences.

The camp is part of the Moyer Foundation, a nonprofit started by former All-Star Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer and his wife, Karen. The charity aims to help children in distress by providing education and support programs.

"My niece was in a situation with her mom, who was an addict, and I was trying to find resources that would help her," Karen Moyer said of her niece, who moved in with her and Jamie for a time.

When Moyer couldn't find a program for preteens, she decided to start her own. She collaborated with addictions specialist Claudia Black to establish Camp Mariposa (Spanish for "butterfly"). The camp is part of the Moyers' nonprofit, joining their Camp Erin, a bereavement program for youngsters dealing with death, which is offered locally in Horsham.

Studies show that youngsters living with addiction in the family are at greater risk of developing their own substance-abuse issues, as well as other problems, including anxiety and depression.

Camp Mariposa is offered at four locations around the country, with plans to expand. The Quakertown camp is run in partnership with the Penn Foundation, a Sellersville nonprofit that offers behavioral health and wellness services.

At Camp Mariposa, counselors lead youngsters in outdoor activities such as hiking and running an obstacle course on the grounds of Camp Men-O-Lan, a retreat center in Quakertown. Underlying every activity are the goals of team-building and developing confidence and self esteem.

Campers also spend much of their time in group sessions, playing games and creating art designed to help them with problem solving, stress at home, and peer pressure. "The most important thing we want them to learn is that they are not to blame and they can't control the addicted person's behavior," said Nicole Houck, the camp's project director and an outpatient counselor at the Penn Foundation.

It is all an effort to break the generational cycle of addiction, said Karen Moyer, who lives in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

That is Lori Murphy's biggest worry. She fears the two-year addiction of her husband, who was also undergoing treatment for bipolar disorder, will trickle down. She wishes the camp had been founded earlier so her older son and daughter, both teenagers, could have attended.

The experience with their father's addiction helped turn Mackenzie into an introvert and prompted Maddy to "grow up fast," becoming a very protective daughter, Lori Murphy said.

In one camp game, Houck and counselor Lori Badman demonstrated how addiction can affect a family. Badman and Houck taped the campers' thumbs to their hands. The campers then tried to write their names and catch a ball without the use of their thumbs.

If the fingers symbolize a family . . . Badman began, "The thumb could be the addicted person," Mackenzie added.

Without the person, the family struggles, Badman said.

During the last two years of her father's life, Maddy was sometimes scared.

"We didn't know what to do," she said.

The camp has helped them cope, see that other youngsters share their experience, and taught them to resist peer pressure.

Because if you're not careful, Mackenzie said, "the person in your family can become you one day."