Highmark Caring Place encourages community to wear blue and hold on to hope for grieving children on Nov. 20
PITTSBURGH (Nov. 18, 2014) —Children's Grief Awareness Day (CGAD), created in 2008 by the Highmark Caring Place, A Center for Grieving Children, Adolescents and Their Families, is an annual way to help us all become more aware of the needs of grieving children. Since it first began, CGAD has grown into a national and international day of observance on the third Thursday of November each year, marked by many community events.
"The holidays are an especially difficult time for a child who has lost a loved one," said Highmark Caring Place Director Terese Vorsheck. "This day is an opportunity, before the holidays, to show children who have experienced the loss of a close family member that they are not alone and that the community supports them through their healing."
The Caring Place encourages individuals to commemorate CGAD by wearing blue on Nov. 20 and participating in the unique Holding On To HOPE social media campaign by taking a photo with HOPE, the Caring Place butterfly, and posting it to Twitter and/or Instagram with #CGADHope. Others may choose to post their support on the Children's Grief Awareness Day Facebook page.
In Pittsburgh, home to Highmark and two Caring Place locations, CGAD will be marked by a "blue out" across the downtown skyline, with many businesses illuminating their buildings with blue lights including Highmark's own Fifth Avenue Place, One Mellon Center, Carnegie Science Center, PNC Park, the Gulf Tower, Duquesne University and the Pittsburgh City Courthouse and Tower. In addition, a memory wall is installed at 620 Stanwix Street near the doors of the Highmark Caring Place. There, community members can write their own thoughts and memories of a loved one or a message of support to children who are grieving the loss of someone near to them.
"Remembering helps us to know that people we love, even though we don't see them now, live on in our hearts," said Vorsheck.
Gatherings to commemorate CGAD will be held at the Caring Place's four facilities in Erie, Lemoyne, Pittsburgh and Warrendale, Pa. for families who have received Caring Place services and for the organization's volunteers. Additional CGAD events will be held by schools, businesses and communities around the world.
To learn more about how to participate through a variety of individual or group activities, visit http://www.childrensgriefawarenessday.org.
Contact:
Janice Maszle
Highmark Caring Place (Pittsburgh, Erie, Warrendale/Cranberry)
412-544-7643
janice.maszle@highmark.com
David Misner
Highmark Caring Place (Harrisburg region)
717-302-3638
david.misner@highmark.com
