Wear Blue for Children’s Grief Awareness Day Thursday, November 15

Reno, NV (November 3, 2012) – The Solace Tree is joining with Highmark Caring Place, a grief center based in Pittsburgh, PA, to commemorate Children’s Grief Awareness Day, which is observed on the Thursday before Thanksgiving each year. “It’s a day focused on remembering the children all around us who have experienced the death of a loved one,” explained Solace Tree Executive Director Emilio Parga. “Families often feel more alone during the holidays and this a reminder to reach out to them and let them know they haven’t been forgotten.”

Participating in Children’s Grief Awareness Day
There are many ways to participate in Children’s Grief Awareness Day but the easiest ways are:

  • Wear blue on that day and let people know why you’re wearing blue.
  • Visit the Children’s Grief Awareness Day Facebook page and join in the conversation while you’re there.
  • Share your thoughts and memories on the Solace Tree Facebook page.
  • Join the Holding on to HOPE campaign at any time of the year to show grieving children there really is hope that it won’t always hurt so badly.
  • If you’d like to take the next step in raising awareness, read about more ideas.

Why Raise Awareness for Grieving Kids and Teens?

  • There are more grieving children than most of us realize – one out of 20 children will experience the death of a parent before they graduate from high school while one out of every seven children will face the death of someone close to them.
  • Many people don’t realize it takes most children much longer to deal with their grief than we expect and that the amount of inner turmoil, invisible to most, is much more intense than we have any idea of.
  • So people will realize even if there aren’t any outward signs of inner turmoil, those storms can still be raging inside a grieving child’s heart.
  • So that people will understand that a grieving child can’t just “get over it” – not in any set time period and not by any act of their own will – and that there’s no reason that they should just “get over it.”
  • In order to help people learn ways they might help a grieving child they happen to know, now or in the future. Click here for more information.

The Solace Tree, Inc. is a 501c (3) non-profit based in Reno, NV, with a mission is to provide peer support, information and education to schools and the community to promote healing and recovery for grieving children, teens and their families who are affected by loss. For more information on making a donation, please visit http://www.solacetree.org/donate or call 775.324-7723.

###