MEMORY WALK A GREAT SUCCESS!

MEMORY WALK A GREAT SUCCESS!
Two Young Sisters Walk In Memory Of Their Baby Brother

NEXT MEETING DATE

Support Meetings Are Open To The General Public. Please Feel Free To Come And Share or Sit And Listen if You Have Lost A Child.

MEETINGS ARE NOW AVAILABLE TO ATTEND VIA SKYPE. IF YOU WOULD LIKE AN INVITE, PLEASE EMAIL CARA.

NEXT MEETING DATES:

GRIEF / LOSS SUPPORT - Wednesday, July 14th at 7pm in the Community Room at the Whiting Library in Chester, Vermont.

Facilitator: Cara Tyrrell - Email Me 117 Main St ~ Chester, VT 05143

***

PALS (Pregnancy or Parenting After Loss) : To make these meetings more accessible please contact Gretchen if you have a PALS related issue and she will organize a meeting in your area.

Facilitator: Gretchen Lunderville - Email Her

***

The Board of Directors next meeting is set for Wednesday, July 7th. If you have an agenda item please email cara.


Monday, November 30, 2009

Angel Ornaments In Your Home Town!


The Angel Ornament drive kicked-off at the Bowling for Babies event, but it's only just begun!


Throughout the holiday season you can order your angel ornaments, either in celebration of your living children or in memory of your angel babies. Both can be personalized with a pink, purple, yellow, or blue tag reading your child's name and the year.


Please consider supporting Share Southern Vermont by purchasing angels ($5 each) while adding classic decorations to your holiday tree!


Order online - or, call Cara at 802-226-7231.


Live in the area? We'll be set up outside Shaws in Ludlow on Saturday, December 12th from 9am on! Stop by the table and we can personalize your ornaments instantly!


If you wish to make a memorial contribution this holiday season please email Cara.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The First Of Anything...

(This post duplicated at Building Heavenly Bridges)

She held my gaze with tears in her eyes, words tumbling out, eager to be free and I, just as eager to hear them.

"I'll never forget the day I was reading the paper online and saw a link to 'new infant loss group'. Of course, I had to click on it and read your article. Tears fell as I read it again and again. I printed it out and held it, wanting to give it to my daugther but knowing it wasn't yet time."

I smiled, already knowing the ending to this story, yet needing to hear it again if for no other reason to solidfy that the facts of the last year are actually true, that I haven't been living a dream that a good solid pinch will wake me up from.

"That was last February" she continued, tears more prominant than ever, "and here we are, in November - bowling. My daughter found you, found your group."

Yes, yes she did and we are so grateful for her strong presence, both in group and as part of our ever expanding board.

"My prayers were answered" she concluded and I found that we were holding hands, joined in our reverie even as the chatter of giggling families and clatter of bowling balls whirred around us.
***

The event was everything is was meant to be. As always, all the right people were there and received exactly what they needed. It was advertised as a 'celebration of family' and one pan of the room conveyed that our intentions had indeed been met. Yet, even as balls hit gutters, pizza was consumed and cheering ensued as someone threw a strike, our babies were remembered, were there amounst us, smiling angels on our shoulders.

I stop short when I think what has been achieved in just one year and look forward to the lighthearted celebratory conversation that will spin around the dinner table as the board members dine together on December 22nd, our one year anniversary.

Even so, there is so much more to be done. Lest we not lose our momentum, but let it gather speed propelling us futher down the track of expansion, reaching every family, every parent, every heart broken by loss.

And now, a few images from our day... The lanes...

The Pizza!

The angel ornaments, personalized and hung on our tree!

The memory bands...

A few of our Angel Babies above each lane...







Just a section of the raffle!










And, the main event: The Bowling!




And, as 'on her game' as ever, my very own comedian taking a 'little rest from the ball game'

Until next year a family friendly psa: Bowling is fun. It makes you laugh. It causes you not to take life, or yourself very seriously for a couple hours. Go Bowl!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Top Ten Reasons to Come to Bowling for Babies!

10) You can purchase raffle tickets online, even if you can't come in person! (And with the majority of items worth over $50 and over they are a steal at $5/6, $10/15, and $20/40!)

9) It's raining.

8) An after church / brunch / morning-in-front-of-cartoons activity is good for the moral.

7) The raffle items are AMAZING!

6) Goodman's woodfired pizza is the absolute best!

5) The ice-cream-which-must-not-be-named sounds scaringly similar to a cat and mouse duo.

4) Quality family time is hard to find.

3) $25 for a family activity and meal is unheard of!

2) It's a drop-in format and all money raised goes to a great cause!

And, the number 1 reason to attend Bowling for Babies is: __________________.

You fill in the blank, for even if you haven't had a loss (and, believe us we pray you haven't lived it) the memories you make during this celebration of family will stay with you long after the last ball has rolled!

See you tommorrow!

Friday, November 13, 2009

BOWLING FOR BABIES IN TWO DAYS!


It is incredibly hard to believe, especially if you read the Vermont Journal this week (which grossly misprinted the date of the event), but our Bowling for Babies family fundraiser is in two days!

On SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH we will gather together to remember, to bowl, to raise some money, and to have fun!

The RAFFLE is packed with GREAT stuff!! Click over and buy some tickets online, and be sure to put them in their virtual buckets!!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Share Southern Vermont On TV!

I don't have a problem with public speaking. This is well known. In fact, if you watched the video of the memory walk you not only saw me speak a great deal, but sing on camera as well!

That said, walking into a tv studio and intentionally taping a promo for an event is not something I've ever done...until today that is.

That's right! With my youngest gaping at me from the corner chair and being ever-so-quiet, I recorded this 4 minute segment on Share Southern Vermont, its history, its mission and its current focus: Bowling for Babies.

If for no other reason than to see how hard it is to show genuine expression while being filmed, click over and watch it!! (If ever I harbored a secret desire to become a soap opera star it was unceremoniously sqashed today!)

http://lpctv.org/programs/bowling-babies

And -- don't forget, if you would like to sponsor a lane in memory of an angel baby it is only $25!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Show and Tell: All The Right People

In December of 2008 I hatched an idea to start Share Southern Vermont. I had no idea what it would become or who would share the ride with me. Over the course of the last year I found myself saying again and again, "All the right people with all the right skills seem to be showing up!"

The picture above is from our recent candle lighting ceremony on October 15th. It is our board of directors, each a bereaved mother with a strong spirit and a mission to help others navigate their grief.

Because of their energies we have accomplished much this year, tranistioning notions into ideas, those ideas into action, and celebrating the realities that followed.

One of the realities I have pined for is a website all our own. Blogger gave SSV a comfortable home this year, but only so much can be accomplished on this site. Thanks to the considerable efforts of a grieving father, we now have a website we can call home -- complete with it's very own menu bar and pages for each of our outreaches.

It is, of course, in need of some tweaking but the overall effect brought tears to my eyes!

For show and tell, I offer our new site: http://www.sharesouthernvermont.site90.com/.

And, while you are there, click on the EVENTS tab. Hard to believe, but our first annual Bowling for Babies fundraiser is only 11 days away!

You can preview raffle items. You can even buy tickets online and put them in virtual containers!

Lastly -- because of the new site, this blog will transition into exactly that, a place to record ideas and emotions about our events.

So, look for big changes round these parts because we plan to do even more and reach even further in 2010!

What is the rest of the class Showing and Telling?

MEMORY BANDS ON SALE NOW!

MEMORY BANDS ON SALE NOW!

$3 EACH OR 4 / $10

$3 EACH OR 4 / $10
To Order Use SEE THE SIDEBAR