Marking Children’s Grief Awareness Month with Myra’s Kid’s Foundation

To mark the start of Children’s Grief Awareness Month, representatives of Myra’s Kids Foundation — which helps children learn to cope and give them hope after a significant death — were at Westmount High School Friday, shedding light on the reality of children’s grief.

“Grief cannot be seen, so there’s no scar on a child’s face. There’s nothing that says, I am grieving, please treat me differently,” says Jon Reider, founder and CEO of Myra’s Kids Foundation. His mother died when he was just three years old.

“It’s not easy, it’s a mix of emotions,” says Sidney Bush, a volunteer and former camper at Myra’s Kids Foundation.

Her aunt passed away and she was a camper at the foundation when it started eight years ago.

“What’s important to know is that everyone grieves differently and just because someone grieves one way, it doesn’t mean that you know how the other one will grieve.”

On Friday, the organization premiered a 20-minute documentary called The Missing Piece: The Reality of Grief, which followed 20 young adults at their summer retreat for grieving children. 

“In every classroom, in every school, there’s children who are grieving and we want people to understand that support for these children is paramount to really allowing them to deal with their grief and also realize that there’s a community around them who are supporting them,” said Reider.

“That’s what Myra’s Kids is also doing on an annual basis: throughout the year, we provide support groups. We bring them up to camp. And we do all of this on a no-charge basis for all of the families.”

Throughout November, schools across the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) will honour children who suffered a loss by wearing blue, the internationally recognized colour of Children’s Grief and host speakers on the issue.