Our mission is to bring joy and comfort to children and teens by helping them keep alive traditions and simple pleasures they shared with their mothers.

Description:
Max and Madi's mom had cancer which had progressed beyond treatment. Max and Madi liked planting flowers with their mom. Mommy's Light arranged for flowers and gardening surprises to be delivered to Max and Madi. After the planting,their mom said, "The flowers look beautiful and I am so grateful Max and Madi will remember me when they see them." Mommy's Light will arrange for these children to plant flowers each spring until they are 18 years old.
There are three criteria for children/teens to be eligible to receive Mommy's Light's services. (1) They are between three and eighteen years old. (2) Their mothers are in life-threatening situations or are deceased. (3) They live in southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey (Burlington, Camden and Mercer counties)or northern Delaware. After a family requests our support, representatives from Mommy's Light meet the eligible child/teen and family to discuss the tradition or simple pleasure to be preserved. Subject to Board approval, Mommy's Light arranges the details and funding of the request. The child/teen and family then carry out the tradition or simple pleasure.

Mommy's Light is not just about planting flowers, baking cookies or whatever tradition the child chooses. The tradition is a vehicle for the child to maintain a strong emotional connection to their mother. According to a Harvard University child bereavement study, children benefit from maintaining a strong emotional connection to the deceased person- it has a positive impact on the child's ability to continually adapt to the death. Grieving is not an event to be gotten over. It is a life long process of adaptation. At every age stage, whether it is entering middle or high school, college, first date, graduations, birthdays, holidays, marriage, babies, or other deaths, children need to continue to adapt to their mother's death. Individuals and cultures use traditions to build on the past while moving on to the future. Mommy's Light supports these children and their families in creating safe and healthy grieving environments which allow them to continually adapt to their mother's death through all their life experiences in the context of ritual and tradition.

In order to have the resources necessary to serve these young people, Mommy's Light needs volunteers to fulfill the tradition requests of the children and teens we serve,as well as volunteers interested in fundraising,community relations and outreach, administration,staffing for special community events, corporate sponsors,donors, dedicated office space and computers.

Contact people:

Lynne Kreher, Office Manager, (phone), (email) Tracey Oberholtzer, Volunteer Director, (phone), (email)

Address:

PO Box 494 Lionville, PA 19353

Web Site: http://www.mommyslight.org