Butterfly release to help families honor loved ones
On Saturday, July 23, at 10 a.m. Joel’s Place for Children hosts its 16th Annual Butterfly Release Picnic at Cahoon Memorial Park in Bay Village. Joel’s Place for Children is a non-profit that provides grief support groups for school-aged children and their families who have experienced the death of someone special in their lives.
At the Butterfly Release event, children and their families will have an opportunity to honor their loved ones by announcing their names in an opening ceremony prior to releasing a living butterfly. The butterflies arrive from Florida the day before the Release, and are stored in the refrigerator overnight. A pot-luck picnic lunch and kickball game will follow.
Joel's Place typically meets twice monthly during the school year for peer-based, non-denominational grief support groups at a space generously located in Bay Presbyterian Church. Families pay nothing to attend Joel’s Place. The group is funded primarily by donations from private contributors, and a couple small local grants.
“Joel’s Place for Children operates on the belief that it is helpful and healing for grieving children and their families to share their stories, memories, experiences, thoughts, and feelings with other grieving children. The Butterfly Release is an intimate event for those where Joel’s Place supporters can mourn and celebrate their losses together,” said co-founder Kathy Stellato.