Over the last few days, I have witnessed some of the greatest feelings of joy and happiness thanks to some very special volunteers.
Some of you are aware that we are in full swing preparations for the Walk for Suicide Prevention that is being held in the Hazleton area by a local program called Help Stop the Silence. A very dear acquaintance of mine and someone who has helped me tremendously in dealing with my own grief is the founder of this program.
Shane's Hearts of Hope is planning on having a table set up at the walk to share our project with the attendees. Having hearts to hand out is a huge undertaking for us to be able to distribute during the walk event. We will need a minimum of 800 hearts and that is just to meet minimum demand of ONE heart per person. I would love to be able to provide heart packets containing several hearts per bag to each participant, I cannot even dream of doing this on my own. I need your help.
I posted a request for anyone who might want to help by decorating wooden hearts and I have had many people offer.
A previous co-worker of mine asked if she could help and stopped by the house to pick up a bag of hearts. Tonight I log into Facebook to find the below photos of her beautiful children working on their works of art. There is no greater love put into this set of hearts, coming from children. Just look at their precious little faces all lit up because they know they have done something not only FUN but meaningful.
Some of you are aware that we are in full swing preparations for the Walk for Suicide Prevention that is being held in the Hazleton area by a local program called Help Stop the Silence. A very dear acquaintance of mine and someone who has helped me tremendously in dealing with my own grief is the founder of this program.
Shane's Hearts of Hope is planning on having a table set up at the walk to share our project with the attendees. Having hearts to hand out is a huge undertaking for us to be able to distribute during the walk event. We will need a minimum of 800 hearts and that is just to meet minimum demand of ONE heart per person. I would love to be able to provide heart packets containing several hearts per bag to each participant, I cannot even dream of doing this on my own. I need your help.
I posted a request for anyone who might want to help by decorating wooden hearts and I have had many people offer.
A previous co-worker of mine asked if she could help and stopped by the house to pick up a bag of hearts. Tonight I log into Facebook to find the below photos of her beautiful children working on their works of art. There is no greater love put into this set of hearts, coming from children. Just look at their precious little faces all lit up because they know they have done something not only FUN but meaningful.
Another mother who took some hearts to decorate decided to make it a family event. Her and her children sat together, had family time and decorated 40 hearts. She told me today when she returned them to be ribboned and tagged that it was a really nice time to spend with her children. Doing the hearts prompted conversation that she felt she may not have had otherwise. The activity was there to provide the catalyst for some serious conversation about her children's feelings on the subject of suicide, mental illness and depression. She thanked me, but how could I say anything more than "no, thank YOU!" in return.
This has been my hope all along, that the lines of communication will be opened up about a subject that has been taboo to discuss for so long. It is time that we stop whispering and we start finding ways to open the lines of communication with our children and others that we have the privilege of being in our lives.
If you would like to open up these lines of communication and start talking with your kids about the serious topics in life, contact me and I will be happy to give you some hearts to decorate or some guidance on how you can make your own hearts. The conversation is necessary.
It just may save a life.
This has been my hope all along, that the lines of communication will be opened up about a subject that has been taboo to discuss for so long. It is time that we stop whispering and we start finding ways to open the lines of communication with our children and others that we have the privilege of being in our lives.
If you would like to open up these lines of communication and start talking with your kids about the serious topics in life, contact me and I will be happy to give you some hearts to decorate or some guidance on how you can make your own hearts. The conversation is necessary.
It just may save a life.
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