In 2008, the Highmark Caring Place, a free center for grieving children and families, officially recognized the third Thursday in November as Children’s Grief Awareness Day. Now, it is a nationally recognized holiday set to commemorate, support, and acknowledge grieving children.
Locally, NASH is also taking the time to address grieving students and their stories.
One of the second floor English hallways is now home to a new, carefully planned, and intentionally created mural. The mural features a weeping willow tree and a flurry of blue butterflies surrounding it. Look closely, and you’ll see hundreds of different names written on the butterflies’ backs. These gentle and small memorials were created by any student who is grieving and has lost a family member, close friend, or even pet.
Mrs. Danielle Omasits, the teacher coordinator for this mural, was inspired by another NA staff member from a different building.
“My daughter goes to McKnight Elementary, and when she was in kindergarten, the librarian at the time was Mrs. Falkner,” Omasits said. “I remember she did a butterfly mural for Children’s Grief Awareness Day that year.”
This started Omasits’ own interest and passion in the national holiday.
“At the same time, I actually had her daughter in my class, and it inspired me to start doing this at NASH as well,” she explained.
However, Mrs. Falkner wasn’t the only inspiration.
“Mr. Mooney, a teacher who used to work at NASH, would do things for Children’s Grief Awareness Day in the halls,” Omasits added. “When he moved to Marshall [Middle School], I decided to pick it up myself.”
The Caring Place’s symbol for children’s grief is the butterfly, hence the continued butterfly cutouts that piece the mural together.
“We had to cut out hundreds of the blue butterflies to distribute to the school, so I constantly had a few of my students coming to cut them out,” Omasits said “We had many people volunteer to help out with this stage, starting around three weeks ago.”
Three specific students, Sophie Brunger, Clayton Blough, and Logan Southwick stand out. These three students were juniors in Mrs. Omasits’ class, and approached her last year about their own idea for the mural.
“They asked me if they could design the whole thing this year,” she said. “So, basically, they’ve had this weeping willow design in the works for a year.”
The hope is that the willow tree will represent the tree of life, and the butterflies swarming it will be personal additions to the artwork.
“They’ve planned and executed it all, including the announcement video asking the school to wear blue this Thursday to commemorate the day,” Omasits said.
So, today, as NASH is colored blue and bears a proud new mural, it’s a chance to show support to grieving students. Better yet, this support and encouragement is coming straight from fellow students.
The three student leaders, Blough, Brunger, and Southwick have a message to grieving students.
“As long as you wake up happy and healthy its already a great day. Remember to not dread on things you can’t control. Grief does not last forever. Pain is only temporary. You are not alone.”
“I really haven’t done anything, no credit goes to me. This was all my students,” Omasits remarked.
The NASH English teacher wanted to emphasize the love and support flowing from this project, highlighting the exact purpose of the blue clothes, butterflies, and floor to ceiling tree mural.
“You are not alone here at NASH,” she said. “There are so many people here to help and support you. You are loved!”
