STAMFORD—This November, Trinity Catholic High School (TCHS ) participated in its first-ever Children’s Grief Awareness Day, a day that seeks to bring attention to the fact that support can make all the difference in the life of a grieving child.
Children’s Grief Awareness Day began in Pennsylvania in 2008 from a desire on the part of students to do more to bring attention to what their grieving classmates were coping with, for the most part in silence. This initiative grew to include hundreds of schools and organizations, along with local, state and national leaders from across the U.S., who work to raise awareness of grieving children and to change the culture in order to make death and grief a topic that can be spoken of openly and compassionately.
Before they graduate from high school, one child out of every 20 children will have a parent die—and that number doesn’t include those who experience the death of a brother or sister, a close grandparent, an aunt or uncle, or friend. The students at TCHS joined in this opportunity to raise awareness of the painful impact that the death has in the life of a child or teenager, and to make sure they receive the support they need. Children’s Grief Awareness Day is usually observed on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, a particularly appropriate time of year because the holiday season is often an especially difficult time after a death.
Young people who have experienced the death of someone important to them often feel like their struggles are invisible to those around them. They need people to know that the death of someone close is the beginning of many weeks, months and even years of finding ways to go on without that special person in their lives. The Grief Awareness Day was organized by TCHS volunteers of Rainbows for all Children, a structured grief support organization.
At TCHS students marked this special day by:
- Remembering and honoring their loved ones by writing their names on their Memory Wall
- Pledging to tell three people about Children’s Grief Awareness Day
- Offering support to their classmates
- Wearing Blue Memory Ribbons
- Praying the prayers on their Children’s Grief Awareness Day prayer card
For more information about supporting grieving children, please contact Mary at rainbowsmary.hs@gmail.com
PHOTO: Helping others to realize the impact of grief, volunteers (l-r) Katie McCarthy (Freshman); Grayce Journick (Freshman); Theresa Lupinacci (Senior); Patrick Carlon (Senior); Sophie Thompson (Senior); and Eleanor Curley-Holmes (Senior) handed out brochures and opened discussions with their classmates.
