*Our 2022 presentation of $12,250.00 to Rick's Place.*

In 2022, we hosted our first annual event as a private gathering amidst the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, we had two charity recipients who received a total of $16,500 from WMCD, despite the cancellation of the community-wide event. One of those recipients was Rick’s Place, a Wilbraham-based nonprofit organization providing critical grief support to children and their families. For our inaugural event, we were able to grant Rick’s Place $12,250, which enabled them to kick off a program that not only brought in-school grief support groups to Westfield Public Schools but developed training for staff and faculty in the schools as well. To date, we’ve presented over $37,000 to Rick’s Place.

*Our 2023 presentation of $15,154.00 to Rick's Place.*

“We know that there are certain things that are going to be more supportive and helpful to these students,” said Susan Dargie, the director of curriculum and instruction for Westfield Public Schools. But who knows it best? The volunteers at Rick’s Place who see the impact they are making. “For the youngest grievers, school support groups are often their first introduction to grief support. Here, they begin to develop a basic understanding of emotions and language to express themselves and their grief experience in developmentally appropriate ways. For older students, groups can help reduce feelings of isolation, improve coping skills, create new support systems, validate and normalize grief reactions, and develop empathy and awareness for others. If grief goes unacknowledged or unsupported, students are more likely to develop longer term challenges, including issues with concentration, behavioral problems, social isolation and withdrawal, depression, truancy, substance use and even suicide.”

*Our 2024 presentation of $10,400.00 to Rick's Place.*

Our youth team, comprised of a dozen middle and high school students, selected Rick’s Place as a recipient, and they have enthusiastically supported the continued sponsorship of Rick’s Place in 2023, 2024, and as we most recently announced, again, in 2025. Colin White, a Westfield High School Junior recalls the moment that an intern at Rick’s Place shared her experience with the organization, “Seeing one of the volunteers from Rick’s Place explain how grief support has impacted her and been so important gives this unexplainable feeling. It’s a sense of accomplishment not possible from anywhere else. It breaks boundaries between you and the people you help. At the end of the day all of us share one thing in common being that we are people and despite our differences we aren’t all that different. The emails, the letters that the youth team have gotten thanking us has truly touched me. At the end of the day, it’s important to remember these people are more similar to us than we think.”

As our relationship with Rick’s Place has grown, they’ve shown us the true impact of our work:

Students consistently express their gratitude for the topics covered, the creative projects, and the meaningful peer connections and support they gain through these groups. Students highlight the value of having dedicated time during their school day to openly discuss the unique challenges of being a student who is grieving while simultaneously managing their academic responsibilities. Overall, students express that their School-Based Grief Group experience taught them they are not alone in their grief. One shared, “Group helped me to know that I wasn’t alone and everyone was supportive and understanding. I was able to connect with others, and I learned I can feel safe sharing.” Another student noted that their group experience served as a “reminder that it’s okay to feel your feelings. It gave me relief from having to hold everything in.”

We’re honored to continue supporting a charity whose mission and vision is so youth-oriented and community-focused. For more information on Rick’s Place, visit their website, ricksplacema.org, and follow them on all their social media accounts.