TEMPLE, Texas (KXXV) — A national nonprofit that works with communities after mass tragedies is publicly backing Camp Mystic and questioning a wave of lawsuits filed after the deadly July 4 flooding that killed 27 campers and counselors.
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The Youth Peace and Justice Foundation, formerly known as the Uvalde Foundation for Kids, released a statement this month reaffirming its support for the historic girls camp, its staff and the families affected by the disaster. The organization said it views the camp as a “co-victim” of an extreme natural event and believes healing should not center on court battles.
National Director and Founder Daniel Chapin described the flooding as an event beyond human control.
“What we saw on July 4th was a tragic, unprecedented union between humanity and the force of nature,” Chapin said.
Chapin said the foundation has seen similar devastation while responding to other disasters across the country.
“The pain and devastation we have witnessed at Camp Mystic are profoundly familiar, echoing the magnitude of loss we encountered while responding to the Maui and California wildfires. We treated those natural disasters with the gravity they deserved, and we approach this one with the same profound respect and sympathy,” he said in the written statement.
In an interview with 25 News, Chapin said many people are still trying to process what happened along the Guadalupe River.
“I think that we are all still reeling. We are all still trying to figure out what happened,” he said.
Chapin said the foundation is concerned about the recent lawsuits filed by families of campers and staff members who died in the flood.
“The foundation has a message for the families and for the community: please don't seek healing in a court,” he said. “My question, I think if I had families sitting right in front of me, is, ‘Will this help your grief? Are you going to minimize the value of your child’s life to a court order? And will that ultimately give you healing?’”
In written responses, Chapin said the organization worries litigation will pull the community away from long-term recovery.
“Our primary concern is that the pursuit of individual legal compensation fundamentally compromises the potential for collective institutional healing,” he said. “Litigation, in this context, reduces an existential tragedy to a transactional injury, placing an overt monetary valuation on the irreplaceable loss of life.”
Chapin said the foundation sees the camp as part of the circle of loss.
“We're looking at a community, a camp Mystic community of over 100 years, that have also lost a brother… a father… a friend,” he said. “They're being penalized, I think, prematurely. We're judging them when we should be accepting the reality that this was a tragic event.”
The foundation’s statement argues that Camp Mystic “could not have foreseen nor held back the sheer force of the flood waters” and said the flood was a natural disaster on a scale beyond the camp’s control.
Chapin said the group’s stance is not meant to dismiss the grief of families who lost children.
“I think they have every right. I say that the foundation would back them and stand behind them and do to grieve as you see fit, to grieve in the magnitude and the timeline that fits for you,” he said.
At the same time, he said the foundation believes legal outcomes will not resolve the pain.
“There’s a misnomer in grieving,” Chapin said in his written responses. “And that misnomer is that all of the answers will then come bring healing. And that's not the case.”
Chapin said the foundation wants families and the wider community to “find healing in the ways that healing is sustainable,” pointing to “forgiveness and empathy, understanding” as examples.
The Youth Peace and Justice Foundation also praises what it calls Camp Mystic’s transparency since the tragedy. In its news release, the organization said the camp administration, “has been forthright from the very beginning of this tragedy,” noting outreach to affected families, invitations to state lawmakers and emergency service leaders to tour the camp, and the decision to secure a pro bono legal team before lawsuits were filed.
The camp is planning a partial reopening next summer.
“What do I hope? Oh, I hope it doesn’t die. It can’t. There’s too many girls out there. I don't think people realize the girls going to these camps have become teachers, nurses. I hope laughter returns to the camps,” he said.
