STARS

July 31, 2008 in Personal with 2 Comments

At the beginning of the month, I mentioned four topics I wanted to blog about. I’ve covered three of them and here’s the fourth, right in time for the end of the month. :-)

One of my goals for the summer, during my time off from classes, was to do some volunteer work. I knew I wanted to work with children but wasn’t sure where to go to find what opportunities were out there. It didn’t take long for an opportunity to land in my lap.

Several months ago, my bible study group provided dinner for STARS, an organization that provides grief support for kids. I had a discussion with one of the directors and he mentioned something I had noticed over the course of the evening – they desperately needed guys as facilitators! God opened the door, so I walked through it.

STARS is a grief-support program for school age children who have experienced the death of someone loved. As a joint effort of Linnemann Funeral Homes and St. Elizabeth Hospice Program, it functions as an independent entity utilizing resources provided by both agencies. Our goal is to help kids and their caregivers acknowledge how death has impacted their lives and then give them tools to work through this grief. This is accomplished through age-appropriate groups, including one specifically for the adult caregivers. We desire to incorporate as many tools of learning as possible in order for us to be effective in supporting the families in their losses.

So far this summer, I’ve mostly done training in preparation for this coming fall, but I did have the chance to help out with the day camp earlier in the month. That was a lot of fun and made me realize just how much I’ve missed working with kids. They wore me out! It broke my heart to hear some of their stories, though, who they’ve lost and how they died. These kids are troopers!

Guys, we could use you at STARS! There’s also a new website with Northern Kentucky volunteer opportunities: nkyhelps.com.

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About Chris: Thirty-something, knowledge seeking, information devouring, Christian technophile living in Northern KY seeking to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with my God.


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2 Responses to “STARS”

  1. Paul Cahill August 1, 2008 at 12:53 #

    If you need any suggestions, I’m sure Emily can help out since that is her field. I know she has researched grief support as well.

  2. Lori Staifer August 6, 2008 at 12:49 #

    Aww…that is sweet Chris, I didn’t even know you were doing this. Very cool. Yay kids!