Friends of St Louis CREW -Supporting Local Widows

03/18/2026

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03/15/2026

HUGE thanks are due to TCC, Verizon Authorized Retailer for a generous grant that helped us spoil the widows and families even more than usual this past Christmas. Last week we delivered 3k eggs and all the fun stuff to stuff them with. Christina (pictured here with group leader Destiny) and all the employees at the Arnold Verizon store are using their down time today to get the eggs ready for our 1st ever Widows and Kiddos Easter Egg Hunt at the end of the month.

02/19/2026

Thank you to Alleluia Baskets from the bottom of our hearts for the generous donation of over 3 large black trash bags full (3,000) donated plastic Easter eggs for our upcoming first annual widows and kiddos Easter Egg Hunt! We can’t wait to fill these eggs with all kids of happiness to brighten up our CREW’s Easter this year. When you lose your person, a secondary loss than many don’t realize is the loss of your traditions. After my husband died, our traditions died too. Not just the way me and my kids celebrated, but my parents and my late husband’s parents just didn’t have it in us to celebrate the way we used to with someone so special missing. Even as we move forward trying to create new traditions special days and holidays can just be hard to celebrate for a while. Making events that help the women and families we serve navigate these difficult days with joy and laughter and fun is a big mission of ours. Due to the generous donations we received at the 2025 trivia night, we have launched this new event and a family picnic this summer, while continuing to host an annual retreat, Christmas party and adoptions, Mothers Day, and Valentine’s Day celebrations. It’s an opportunity to feel the joy of these days again with people who understand if we are happy and sad at the same time. Thank you to our community supporters, old and new, for helping us carry out our mission to support widows in the St Louis and St Charles Communities and beyond.

02/14/2026

As you can imagine, Valentine’s can be a hard time for widows. That’s why we went above and beyond to show them love this month with a catered Pasta House meal, Valentine’s Cards with encouraging messages from friends, Nothing Bundt Cakes, a cake pop and a craft. We all also received a handmade crocheted heart pin handmade with love by one of our CREW, Denise. Thanks for helping us love on these ladies and give them a reason to smile even on the hard days!

02/08/2026

Thank you Loretta at Wentzville Nothing Bundt Cakes for the 2 dozen donated sweet treats to help us spoil our CREW at this month’s Valentine’s Day luncheon! We will be encouraging our community to show love to themselves in our grief. Every year, we try to make a difficult time of year a little brighter and we are so grateful for our community that helps make that happen!

01/23/2026

He died in 2019, not even 30 years old. He left his 25 year old widow and 5 year old son to try to figure out life without him. Today, she (and her precious pre-teen) are thriving, in part because she never knew how strong she could be until she had no choice but to be stronger than she ever should have to be. Also in part, I believe, to her connecting with other local young widows so she has had a cheering section hundreds strong of women who’ve walked this journey before her. She is at a stage that she is open to love again.

But…

I hope you never understand how hard it is to change your Facebook status from widowed by him to being in a relationship or married to your next chapter. We can be BOTH widowed AND still trying to live…whatever that may look like to each of us.

These images were shared on her Facebook today. She is not someone I made up, she is a real person and a real widow. She was widowed less than a year before finding our group in 2019, so she is one of my OG favorites from day one. 🫶 Guys, we’ve been cheering her on for 6 years and today she uses her own voice to advocate. 🥹

Thanks for taking an uncomfortable moment to feel the discomfort of our stories as you scroll. It means so much to us that you care.

12/08/2025

Look at all the gifts we received for our “Widow Shop” - providing a gift for each woman in attendance! This year, thanks to a generous donation of Jbloom jewelry, wash woman also left with a couple of sparkly things!

12/08/2025

Thank you to all who donated gifts for our widow shop and supported us on trivia night. Our annual Christmas party was bigger and better than ever today! Wishing all the Friends of StL CREW the happiest holiday season!

11/27/2025

If you make charitable donations this time of year, please consider supporting this local 501c3 organization dedicated to supporting the 70% of moms, sisters, best friends and other married women in your life who will eventually need a group just like this. It didn’t exist 13 years ago when I needed it, but because of support from people like you, we are now supporting over 500 widows in all stages of life, loss and grief. Join us in helping them heal from what research (Holmes & Rahe) acknowleges as the most stressful life event, impacting not only finances, parenting, educational and employment opportunities, spiritual, emotional and physical struggles and a woman’s very sense of self and personal identity. To everyone who always shows up and show us that you see us and you care - thank you.

https://givebutter.com/OBG280?fbclid=IwZnRzaAOViStleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEexcqhiYtwaHJEECXZFYyAIwHBxixzyvYxsGfrTXPSoi4YLBlo7hAT-VPlim0_aem_CgosbiJOkB-vtGM-RNHOig

By Stl Crew - Connect Recreate & Empower Widows

11/19/2025

Our elves are working hard to prepare for Christmas! We adopted 4 young widows this Christmas, along with their 7 children. We have adopted families for 6 years and literally dozens of people have had a little more joyful holiday because Christmas is delivered right to their door, wrapped and ready to go under the tree. We had a last minute venue cancelation for our Christmas party, but we found a new location and are looking forward to spoiling widows and their families with photos and goodies with Santa and Mrs Claus, Atlas Doodle the emotional support dog, balloon artist, face painter, crafts, a widow “shop” to allow each widow in attendance to leave with wrapped gifts for under their tree. So many widows wake up to nothing under the tree for them, so this way they know they are not forgotten on Christmas morning even though their person isn’t here to celebrate with them. For the 6th year in a row, everyone in attendance at our Christmas party will leave with full bellies, hearts and arms! Thank you for the extra prayers and love from our community this time of year.

11/06/2025

In November 2019, a widows community group was formed in O’Fallon MO that would eventually become STL CREW - Connect, Recreate and Empower Widows. We have lived through a pandemic, supporting widows of all ages and states of grief through monthly luncheon meetings, Christmas adoptions, emergency assistance, blood drives, fundraisers, community outreach, annual retreats and social opportunities. Why? Because we want to create space for connections between women who feel so completely isolated in grief and devastation. Connection is where hope is born and hope is the food for healing our hearts. Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way. This is the dream team, minus Dana who was sick, along with so many members who show up daily and ask “How can I help?” because we all know how much this group has done to help us move forward. Keep watching because amazing things are coming this year!