MISS Foundation's Memorial Wall

07/24/2019

Please consider asking bereaved siblings if they would be willing to submit a letter. Details below, thank you

UPDATE: THESE MUST BE RECEIVED BY Sept 1 TO BE INCLUDED.

Urgent message for brothers and sisters:

Are you a grieving sibling of any age? Please read the urgent request below and let's see if we can help this sweet young man:

Dear friends of the MISS Foundation and Selah Carefarm,

My name is Zeve Zilberstein. The reason I am emailing you is because we have one thing in common: we are all bereaved siblings. My five-year-old brother Gidi died almost three years ago on September 4, in a tragic boating accident. Since then, my family has visited the Selah Carefarm multiple times. I am Jewish and am approaching my Bar Mitzvah (a Bar or Bat Mitzvah is a ceremony every Jewish youth goes through when they are twelve or thirteen). It is traditional to perform a mitzvah project for your Bar or Bat Mitzvah. This project is usually something that you do for an organization, to help the organization. For my mitzvah project, I chose to help the Selah carefarm.
I decided to contact (with Dr. Joanne’s help) other bereaved siblings and put together a small book of drawings, letters, and poems from bereaved siblings to bereaved siblings. When a sibling (child or adult) comes or leaves the carefarm, they will receive this booklet to help them with their grief, and to let them know there are other grieving siblings out there too. I have an example of a letter I wrote down below. (Don’t forget, you can choose any way to do this.)

Please email your contributions to [email protected].

If you have chosen to help me, thank you so much.

Hopefully this will help other grieving brothers and sisters.
In memory of all of our siblings,
-Zeve

Example letter:

Dear Grieving Sibling,
My name is Zeve. I also lost a sibling. His name was Gidi. He died in a boating accident. He was very friendly, and absolutely adored glitter, fairies, fashion, and skirts and dresses. After he died I was beyond myself. I constantly remembered the day he died, and I missed him - and still miss him - more then I have ever missed anything. After some time, my family found out about the carefarm and visited. It was life-changing. All the animals were comforting, my living brother, Oren, and I could do work on the farm when we wanted to take our minds off our grief, and Dr Joanne was always willing to talk to me, Oren, or my parents. We were all sad when we had to leave, but were lucky enough to have the chance to visit again. Sometimes, nothing can be better than petting Aspen and Athena, or cleaning out the horses’ stables, or following the sheep around, or kayaking, or just watching Finn follow Dr. Jo around everywhere she goes.

I truly hope you enjoy the carefarm as much as I did,
Zeve

Photo: Gidi's family at The Selah House Respite Center and Carefarm

12/08/2018

The MISS Foundation supports families after the death of a child at any age from any cause. The MISS Foundation will be participating in the Worldwide Candle Lighting that unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor the memories of the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and grandchildren who left too soon. As candles are lit at 7:00 p.m. it will create a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. This national event occurs the second Sunday of December and for over 20 years has brought comfort to the bereaved community.

The MISS Foundation invites you to participate from the privacy and comfort of your home, in your community or at our local event in Marion, IL on December 9, 2018 honoring all those children gone too soon who continue to matter and continue to be loved and missed.

The local event will be held at The First Church of God, 1409 Broeking Road, Marion, IL 62959. The service will begin promptly at 6:30pm. Please arrive early enough to park and find seats. The MISS Memorial Wall will be displayed, there will be speakers and music. Every person will be able to light a candle and speak their childs name. There will be a dessert buffet following the service. Please bring a photo or memento of your child to be displayed on our memorial tables. Please contact Michele Newton 623-329-2970 or [email protected] with any questions.

11/02/2018

The MISS Foundation Memorial Wall will be displayed at the National Children's Memorial Service at the First Church of God in Marion, IL on December 9th at 630pm. For those of you with children represented on the wall a kindness card will be given out with your child's name for an act of kindness to be preformed in their memories. Your child will once again bless someone because they are so loved, missed and continue to matter. Thank you for sharing them. Biggest Hugs

10/10/2016

09/30/2016

You are invited to choose a picture for your profile. October is Child Death Awareness month. Also,dont forget to register for the Phoenix Kindness 5k and Memorial Walk on Oct 22nd and come see the MISS Memorial Wall.

09/29/2016

Hi everyone! We have a great opportunity and assistance by an amazing corporation to help pack our bags for the walk. Filling our participant bags will happen on Tuesday 10/4/2016. I want to give any person, corporation, non profit ect the opportunity to include their information in our participant bags. If you are interested or your company please contact me and let me know. Attached is sponsorship opportunities. For as little as $250 you can have a small logo on our t-shirts and any items included in 250 participant bags. I am trying to gather the items by this weekend. Thank you!

12/12/2015

Reminder, tomorrow night is the memorial candle lighting service in Phoenix AZ. Please join us and share this image with your family and friends. The service will begin promptly at 630pm and following the service there will be a dessert buffet. The MISS Foundation Memorial Wall will be displayed. See you there and holding all your children close to heart this holiday season. Hugs

12/01/2015