I have plans tomorrow.  I have plans to make sure that I wear blue tomorrow.  By wearing the color blue tomorrow, I hopefully will show the children of Acadiana that I support them.

Children, or little people, because that's what they really are, they are very resilient. It is true, but they can also be deeply hurt by the death of a mother, father, sibling or other much beloved family member or friend.  That's while Healing House was started; for grieving children to have a place to go to express how they feel.

So, tomorrow I will wear blue to show I support our kids, and the child inside of me who lost a sibling when a was a teenager. Will you wear blue tomorrow?

I also have other plans for tomorrow.  I plan to be in downtown Lafayette tomorrow night. There will be a community remembrance ceremony to commemorate National Children’s Grief Awareness Day which is tomorrow.  The event will be held tomorrow night, November 20 at 6 p.m. at Park Sans Souci.

The event will be hosted by Healing House, and they are hoping you will come out to show your support for children who are dealing with the loss of a loved one.

They are hoping if you come and show your support that it will help children who are grieving.

In addition, Healing House is asking everyone to wear the color blue to let grieving children know that you support them.  Blue is the color of Children’s Grief Awareness.

Each year, National Children’s Grief Awareness Day is observed on the Thursday before Thanksgiving as it can be a difficult day for a grieving child.

Statistics show that before graduation from high school, one child out of twenty children will suffer the loss of a parent.  That number doesn’t even account for the number of young people who will suffer the loss of sibling or other close loved one.

Healing House gives some reasons why we should raise awareness for grieving kids:

  • There are more grieving children than most of us realize, 1.5 million children are living in a single-family household because of the death of one parent.
  • Most people don’t realize that 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.
  • We raise awareness so that people will realize that even if there aren’t any outward signs of inner turmoil, those storms can still be raging inside a grieving child’s heart.
  • We raise awareness 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”.
  • We raise awareness in order to help people learn ways they might help a grieving child they happen to know, now or in the future.

 

Healing House provides grief support for children 4-17 who have experienced the death of a parent or sibling. It is the only non-profit children’s grief center within a 150 mile radius.

So, will you wear blue tomorrow? I hope you do. You can even send me a picture if you want at bernie@kpel965.com
Life can change in the blink of an eye. Hug the ones you love today.

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