Children's Grief Awareness Day^SM

About the Day

Children's Grief Awareness Day is observed every year on the Thursday before Thanksgiving. This time of year is a particularly appropriate time to support grieving children because the holiday season is often an especially difficult time after a death. Children’s Grief Awareness Day seeks to bring attention to the fact that often support can make all the difference in the life of a grieving child.

Children's Grief Awareness Day was Thursday, November 17, in 2011 and will be Thursday, November 15, in 2012.

Children's Grief Awareness Day provides an opportunity for all of us to raise awareness of the painful impact that the death of a loved one has in the life of a child, an opportunity for all of us to recognize and support the millions of grieving children across the nation—the thousands of grieving children right in our own communities—and the grieving children we know and see in our daily lives, an opportunity to make sure that these children receive the support they need.

Children and Grief

Before they graduate from high school, one child out of every 20 will have a parent die—and that number doesn't include those who experience the death of a brother or sister, a close grandparent, aunt or uncle, or friend.

Children who have had someone die—especially a close family member — can feel the loss forever. They eventually go back to school. They might pick some activities back up. They certainly look "normal." And yet there's still that hole inside.

It often gets worse during the holiday season when the already hard feelings of longing and pain become intensified and when memories of past holidays contrast sharply with the loss of the present holiday.

This is a time of year when the grieving child can feel even more set apart, different from their peers, more alone than ever.

Every school and every community has children who have experienced some type of loss. Even if they keep their loss and experience to themselves, there are many children who are grieving among us.

These children can be helped to not feel so alone. Children and adults together can show their support for grieving children and show their awareness of what grieving children might be going through by participating in Children's Grief Awareness Day.

A Special Day to Remember—How It Began

Children's Grief Awareness Day began in Pennsylvania, growing out of the partnership of the Highmark Caring Place with hundreds of schools across the state — the Caring Team for Children—and the desire of the students to do more to bring attention to what their classmates were dealing with for the most part in silence.

After touring the Caring Place and learning about how alone and misunderstood their peers often felt after a death, Caring Place staff and Caring Team students worked together to inaugurate the first Children's Grief Awareness Day in 2008. Since 2009, businesses and corporations have also become involved.

In just three years, hundreds of schools from across Pennsylvania, reaching nearly 150,000 students, have worked in many ways to raise awareness of grieving children—from having all the students wear blue on that day to holding assemblies and bake sales, sponsoring Silly Hat Days, and having students make presentations to all the Social Studies classes in the high school.

The most basic way to participate is having as many as possible—children and adults—wear blue that day. Publicity about the reason for wearing blue—to show awareness of grieving children—allows the entire community to know what Children's Grief Awareness Day is about.

Another easy way to show support to grieving children is to visit the Children’s Grief Awareness Day Facebook page and, if you like what you see, you can officially "Like" the page. As grieving children see more and more people supporting this page, they can have a greater sense that they are not so alone in their grief—that others do care about what they are facing day after day.

Of course, many schools, companies, and organizations go beyond wearing blue and liking the Facebook page in planning activities for Children's Grief Awareness Day. See how others have taken things to the next step in observing Children’s Grief Awareness Day.

No matter the level of support, being involved shows people's awareness of what grieving children might be going through and demonstrates solidarity with the children. With so many taking part, "Children's Grief Awareness Day" is like a huge shout saying "We care!" to those who have felt so alone in their grief.