It is amazing what a 15 year-old girl can do to help others who are also grieving children.
In February, 2020, Riley Church from Arizona experienced the sudden death of her young father, Robert Church. He was an accomplished professional and a loving Dad.
In an effort to give his death meaning, she began an online ecommerce store, the Cactus Cove Boutique, with the partial intention of helping our other children, teens and young adults who had had a similar experience as she.
Earlier in the year, her brother gave her mother a stuffed animal – a grey elephant – which she calls a Comfort Elephant. It gave her and her mother comfort after the death of her father.
Riley has dedicated the proceeds from her Comfort Elephant Collection to our organization, The Foundation for Grieving Children, Inc. and we are so honored.
Please visit Riley’s store and shop for the Comfort Elephant products as well as other wonderful items for young girls.
Thank you Riley for your wonderful work on our behalf. We thank your customers, also, who are making an impact for grieving children, teens and young adults!
We are honored to partner with students who understand the pain of losing a loved one. Join us.
For 10 days from Friday, November 8th through Sunday, November 17th, we will be holding our Autumn Online Fundraiser.
We encourage
students who have experienced the death of a loved one
students who have witnessed the pain others have encountered during their grieving process
students who feel the F4GC’s work resonates with them
to join us to raise funds for our cause.
Using the MightyCause peer-to-peer fundraising portal, you will easily be able to make a page to honor the significant person or persons in your life who left us too soon.
You can display photos, set your personal financial goal, tell your story, and send your personal page link to others through email and social media to fundraise for grieving children.
Millions of children experience a love one’s death each year and sharing our cause will help raise the funds needed to insure the hurting have the support groups and services they need at such a difficult time in their lives.
What happens when your best friend experiences the death of her brother? You listen, you comfort and you help when she wants to create a fundraiser in his memory.
And that’s exactly what Cameron Wilson did to honor the memory of Nick Edwards, taken much too soon and unexpectedly in a car accident at age 20.
There are many compassionate individuals whom I consider ‘angels amongst us’ who seem to appear and give their love and care when tragedy strikes.
Cameron Wilson (left)
And while there are many who will become overwhelmed when you’re going through grief, but others, just like Cameron, run to the sorrow instead of away from it.
We commend him for his devotion to Emli Edwards as she grieved the loss of her brother and for his support in creating the Neon Night Fun Run.
Thank you Cameron for all you did to make the Fun Run so successful.
May all who grieve so young find phenomenal friends like you!
In June we received a substantial donation from a DECA Advisor in Roanoke Rapids High School honoring Nicholas Edwards.
Unfortunately there was no other information and since school was not in session, we needed to wait until our thank you letter was received and, hopefully, we would receive a note or call so we could learn more.
Nicholas Edwards
Finally that day arrived with a voicemail from Emli Edwards and subsequent telephone call whereby she explained that Nicholas was her brother and she developed a fundraiser for the Foundation’s benefit to honor three family members. It was a delightful conversation with a young girl whose story brought me to tears.
Emli was due on September 11, 2001 but arrived seven days earlier. She had two older brothers, Dustin and Nicolas.
In her 17 years, she has experienced the death of her 43 year-old mother in 2014 when Emli was 12, her 20 year-old brother Nicholas in April 2018 when she was 16, and her 26 year-old brother Dustin in January 2019 when she was 17.
Emli Edwards with her brother Dustin Mountford
In Roanoke Rapids High School in North Carolina, she not only created a successful fundraiser for the Foundation, but she presented an extensive paper to the DECA competition which prepares students for business life and gets them ready for college.
She received a grade of 96%, but the judges got it all wrong. She should have received 100% as her paper and presentation, which she shared with us, was amazing for a 17 year-old. We have no doubt she will excel in life!
She and her boyfriend, Cameron Wilson, worked very hard to develop a “Glow in the Dark Fun Run” and engaged corporate sponsors from the community, even getting the local Roanoke Rapids Theatre to stage their event.
They even connected with the local radio stations, newspaper and social media to get the word out.
The Roanoke Rapids Theatre, North Carolina
Sixty participants enjoyed that evening and $400 was raised for the Foundation.
They held a Memorial Balloon Release to honor the participants loved ones who had died or were killed before the event began. Then the fun began.
Emli Edwards with young participant.
Fun Run Sign with Foundation for Grieving Children’s tag line and Sponsors
Participant at Fun Run to support Foundation for Grieving Children, Inc.Fun Run Participants at Roanoke Rapids, NC Fundraiser for Foundation for Grieving Children, Inc.
We’d also like to acknowledge and thank the following sponsors who helped Emli successfully accomplish her goal. We hope you will support these companies if you are in the Roanoke Rapids, NC area.
Joseph DiBenedetto – Racing in 2019 Brooklyn Half Marathon to honor his Dad who died when Joseph was 3 and as a Foundation for Grieving Children Fundraising Ambassador.
It was a delightful surprise when we received a note from Joseph expressing his desire to raise funds for the benefit of grieving children, teens and young adults, who, like himself, knew the most excruciating pain of losing a significant loved one at an early age.
Joseph’s Dad died when he was only 3 and Father’s Day has been especially difficult for he and his sister. Later in life he also experienced the death of his beloved grandfather in a tragic accident – a man whom he looked to as a father. Two devastating losses.
Because Joseph, who is now a New York Law School student, understood the pain of losing a parent so young, he reached out to us to raise funds as he raced in his first marathon on Father’s Day, 2019.
He told us he wanted to raise 2,100 signifying the number of years he has lived without his Dad.
Many of his family and friends have generously donated to Joseph’s challenge.
Update: On Sunday, June 16th, Father’s Day, Joseph successfully ran in the Brooklynite Half Marathon sponsored by CityTri. While he is very sore, he reports, and it was the hardest things he had ever done, he is grateful to all who donated to honor his Dad on that special day.
When his MightyCause challenge originally worked toward a $2,100 goal, he ultimately raised $2,715 for our cause. So fantastic!!!
See the wonderful photos below including those of his family. Thank you Joseph for all your hard work!
F4GC is the first national non-profit public charity designed for the benefit of children, teens, young adults and their families following the death of a loved one regardless how they died or were killed.
