MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Every Tuesday, as part of our Greater Memphis on a Mission series, we highlight organizations making Memphis better. This week, we caught up with a group that believes in mending hearts with the arts.

Brett Batterson is the president and ceo of the Orpheum Theater Group. He is also the creator of the Mending Hearts Performing Arts Camp located inside the Halloran Center. 

It’s a performing arts day camp for young people who have experienced the death of one or both parents.

“I started the camp to give other young people the same opportunities I had of healing through the performing arts,” said Batterson. “We use the performing arts as the primary healing tool for the young people, as well as providing friendship with others who have experienced a similar loss.”

Batterson understands the heartbreak that comes with losing a parent early in life.

“I lost my father unexpectedly when I was seven years old. As I got older, I understood that it was my participation in the performing arts that gave me my core group of friends that supported me, that helped me gain the self-confidence to express myself,” he said.

They welcome students in 3rd through 8th grades using the transformative power of acting, singing, and dancing as tools to support and help guide the campers on their healing journey.

“It’s not a camp where we’re interested in how well they sing, dance, or act. It’s the fact that they get up there, that they’re brave enough to walk through their fears and get on stage and tell the story, if that’s what they want to do, sing a song if they want to do that, or draw a picture,” said Batterson.

“My dad was, like, a really outgoing person. He liked roller coasters a lot. So that’s why I like roller coasters,” said camper Chance Hudson.

Hudson, now 14, lost her dad when she was just seven years old. Since she was eight, the Mending Hearts Performing Arts Camp has been a place of healing and hope.

“At first, I was like, I feel like the only one. But then whenever I came here, I was like, there’s more people that I can talk to and they understand what I’m going through,” she said.

Through skits, dance, and healing counselors, the campers are able to use the arts to build confidence.

“I’ve learned more like how to cope with my grief and, like, be able to control myself more. Because at first I was like, I don’t really want to talk about it,” said Hudson.

That is why Brown Missionary Baptist Church and the Mid-South Genesis CDC donated $1,000 dollars to the Mending Hearts Performing Arts Camp. Because when you use the arts to create a supportive environment during a life-shifting change, you help build a road to healing.