Local Program Helps Families Cope

June 15, 2022 – Sarasota

The celebration of Father’s Day is an opportunity to reflect on the critically important role of fathers in our lives and honor them. For many children and families in the region, however, Father’s Day is a poignant reminder of loss. 

More than 250,000 children are estimated to have lost a primary or secondary caregiver in the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. The loss of a father can have critical impacts on a child’s development and mental health. In Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee, and Sarasota counties, Tidewell’s Blue Butterfly program helps children and their families grieve and cope with the loss of a father or parent by providing evidence-based grief counseling services, completely free to participants. The Blue Butterfly program receives 100 percent of its funding from generous donations to the Tidewell Foundation. 

One family shared this perspective on celebrating Father’s Day in the face of loss and the impact of Tidewell’s Blue Butterfly program:

“Every day we are brutally aware of his absence, his personality was larger than life and he always made everyone feel loved and would do whatever he could to bring a smile to your face. We will celebrate Father’s Day however the girls decide they would like to honor their dad, which will most likely include some of his favorite things and us all telling stories about him.”

“Blue Butterfly has been completely amazing to our family. They have gone above and beyond to be there for us whenever needed. They have welcomed us with open arms and given us a place that we all feel comfortable sharing our story. They have given us multiple tools to help us try to understand and move through our grief in our own way and in our time, they have taught us that everyone is different and everyone’s grief is different and that is ok. We are so thankful to them for everything they have done for us. As a mother, I honestly can’t thank them enough as I do not know where we would be in this process without them.”

For more information, visit https://tidewellfoundation.org/grief-education-support-services/