Camp brings together children of wounded military personnel

Children of service members injured in combat are at a Fort Worth camp this week to bond and spend time with others who understand what they’re going through.

Operation Purple Camp targets children of service members and veterans across the nation.

"It's big for them to know that 100 other kids here or in the same boat they are,” said Andy Hockenbrock, who works at Fort Worth’s Camp Carter site.

"We have a lot of kids with the military parent deployed and that brings anxiety to school and home. At camp we give them a chance to unplug from stressors," Alex Insel, National Military Family Association.

It's more than just good food and fun, it’s a strategic gathering.

"It makes you closer because everybody understands you, like moving or just traveling. Or you have to move around and you just don't have a choice and everyone's going through the same thing,” said Emily Beaty, Saginaw.

The free weeklong summer camp is now in its 13th year. The kids are new and different sports are aimed at building confidence.

Cade Renfro said it was “really cool” to challenge himself to try to hit the targets.

"For a kid that may have not shot a bow and arrow ever in their life, and then to do it on the first day of camp and then on the last day of camp they hit a bull's-eye and they go home and they tell their mom or dad ‘Hey, look what I did!” And they carry on that confidence and that sense of resiliency into the classroom and at home,” Insel said.