For the fourth year, Animal Health Foundation Pet Partners will be participating in a very worthwhile event: registration activities for the Royal Family Kids Camp.
It is a camp for severely abused children from all over Orange County about ages 7-12 who are given the opportunity to go to camp for 5 days.
This year marks their 20th Anniversary!
The kids get a lot of love and attention for the week and the whole purpose is to give the kids a week of fun and enjoyment and love. It is an International organization but the camps are all sponsored by local groups, i.e. Orange County camp is sponsored by two local. There will be about 100-150 children at registration prior to the buses leaving for camp and then the same amount of children upon their return. Registration and Return will be a Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa.
There will be pet teams stationed around a big recreation room that the kids can come up and pet. This helps relax and entertain the children — who may be apprehensive and anxious before leaving for camp — while the buses are being loaded with luggage and all the paperwork is being completed.
Upon their return from camp the pet teams work again because many of the children are anxious and apprehensive to return home. Upon their return the kids go in the recreation room while the buses are unloaded and they wait for their caregivers, guardians or parents to pick them up.
Organizers say “this is the fourth year that the pet teams have assisted with registration and you cannot imagine the positive feedback that I’ve had. Everyone involved says the dogs (and sometimes other animals) make registration and return go so much smoother now than before. The children, many with developmental and/or behavioral difficulties, had never been as calm as when the dogs have been there.”
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