WESTPORT, CT, July 9, 2024 – TV host, celebrity, and four-time Emmy winner Lauren Zima has been named to the Board of Directors of Experience Camps, an award-winning national nonprofit that transforms the lives of grieving children through summer camp programs and innovative, year-round initiatives.
For Lauren, the mission is personal: “My dad died while I was in college, and the loss changed my family and I forever,” she says. “But I’ve also grown from grief, and speaking out about the grief experience has helped. From the moment I heard about Experience Camps and its mission, I knew I had to get involved.”
“I knew after a week of volunteering that I wanted to champion Experience Camps on a bigger level, in any way I could,” says Lauren.
Lauren joined the Experience Camps community when she volunteered in summer 2023 as a counselor at our camp program in Maine. “Volunteering was a week of joy, transformation and healing,” she says. “It’s a gift to support these incredible kids; helping them fills your heart. I knew after that week I wanted to champion Experience Camps on a bigger level, in any way I could.”
Lauren signed up to volunteer again as a counselor this summer and became further involved, planning and hosting a fundraising event at her home in Austin, and co-hosting our annual Experience: NY fundraiser in May with her husband, fellow TV host Chris Harrison.
As a board member, Lauren is excited to bring her leadership experience, media background and event-planning skills to help Experience Camps open more programs nationwide. In addition to her work in journalism, on-camera hosting and performing, Lauren and her husband have supported and hosted events for other major nonprofits, including The Tiger Woods Foundation, AIM Youth Mental Health, Wildlife Warriors and The Grant Halliburton Foundation.
About Experience Camps
Experience Camps is an award-winning national nonprofit that transforms the lives of grieving children through summer camp programs and innovative, year-round initiatives. Through compassion, connection, and play, we allow grieving children to embody a life full of hope and possibility. By amplifying their voices, we are creating a more grief-sensitive culture.
One in five U.S. children will experience the death of someone close to them by age 18, and over six million will mourn the death of a parent or sibling by age 18. Grieving children are at higher risk than their non-grieving peers for developmental disruptions, including relationship, academic, and career functioning; substance abuse; mental health challenges, including depression and suicide; and poverty.
Experience Camps programs connect grieving children to a community of peers who understand what they’re going through while normalizing the grief process and giving them hope for the future.
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Media Contact: Michelle Cove, michelle@experiencecamps.org
For more information about Experience Camps, visit http://experiencecamps.org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
