Tidewell Foundation Contributes Grant Toward New Family Grief Center in Ellenton

June 30, 2021 – Sarasota

The Tidewell Foundation has made a $1.1 million capital grant to Tidewell Hospice for the creation of the new Tidewell Family Grief Center in Ellenton, a first-of-its-kind facility in our region that will provide holistic grief support for individuals, families and the community. The Foundation is currently seeking additional donor support to complete the Center’s outdoor interactive activity area, a multi-purpose green space including a labyrinth, basketball court, butterfly gardens and other features that will create experiences essential to the healing of mind, body and spirit for children and adults after losing a loved one.

The Tidewell Family Grief Center in Ellenton was catalyzed by the Tidewell Foundation’s grant, which includes a lead gift from Walt and Renee Eppard. Tidewell Hospice’s experience in helping more than 8,000 people navigate grief each year — particularly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — informed and inspired the Center’s intentional design. The Tidewell Family Grief Center will be housed in Tidewell’s former Ellenton Hospice House, transforming it into a dedicated space facilitating the expansion of Tidewell’s grief services. The Ellenton location will serve as a pilot for future Tidewell Family Grief Centers across the region, and the Tidewell Foundation welcomes donations to help make them a reality.

“The Tidewell Foundation is grateful to Walt and Renee Eppard for their incredible generosity and support,” said Tidewell Foundation President Debbie Mason. “The Tidewell Family Grief Center would not be possible without contributions from the Eppards and so many in our community. We are continuing to accept donations to fund several outdoor resources for people in our care as they process their loss and reclaim joy in their lives.”

People often feel lost and confused after the death of a loved one, facing difficult feelings that make coping and moving forward hard. Grief is an especially challenging experience for children, who are at an increased risk for depression, anxiety, truancy, eating disorders, alcohol and drug abuse, and even suicide without access to the treatment they need and opportunities to connect with others who share their trauma. In our region alone, one in 13 children will lose one or both parents before reaching the age of 18. The Tidewell Family Grief Center in Ellenton will be a safe space where everyone feels heard, validated and supported in their grief journey.

Tidewell Family Grief Center clients will have access to opportunities to meet their own grief needs, whether through one-on-one sessions, groups, art therapy, meditation or alternative therapies. It will also create space for a new expansion of Tidewell’s Blue Butterfly program, the region’s only evidence-based grief program for children ages 5-18 and families who have experienced the loss of a parent, sibling or another significant person in their lives. Through these services — all provided at no cost through generous donations to the Tidewell Foundation — Tidewell Hospice will help people through some of their darkest days as they seek to find light and healing. 

“The lives Tidewell Hospice has brightened through one-on-one adult bereavement sessions and support groups as well as programs such as Blue Butterfly affirms the benefits of our holistic, evidence-based approach to treating grief and the need for a place providing this care to those who need it most,” said Jonathan Fleece, President and CEO of Tidewell Hospice and President of Empath Health. “That knowledge has molded the new Tidewell Family Grief Center in Ellenton, creating a welcoming place of comfort and healing for members of our community coping with loss. Our hope is this Ellenton location is the first of several Tidewell Family Grief Centers in our region, creating even greater access to vital grief services.”

Tidewell Hospice plans to open the Tidewell Family Grief Center’s doors to the community in August 2021 with the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Tidewell Hospice’s not-for-profit grief and bereavement services — including the Tidewell Family Grief Center — are 100 percent donor supported through contributions to the Tidewell Foundation and offered for free to members of our community, whether or not their loved one was a Tidewell patient.

To donate toward the completion of the Tidewell Family Grief Center in Ellenton or future Tidewell Family Grief Centers, please visit tidewellfoundation.org/giving-opportunities/tidewell-family-grief-center-in-ellenton. For more information on the support that will be available at the Center and volunteer opportunities within its programs and services, please visit tidewellhospice.org/home/tidewell-family-grief-center.