Nov. 27, 2023-- Two Intermediate East sixth-grade students, Lauren Letts and Leilana Jang, have had their art selected for a 13-month 2024 awareness calendar featuring grief and in-memoriam artwork.

The calendar highlights creativity and introspection from children across the nation. The announcement and calendar release is part of a week-long event focused on helping people through the grieving process, raising awareness, and providing the support that so many people desperately need, especially during the holiday season.

The calendar will be distributed to people attending the "Healing Together Through the Holidays" seven-day hybrid summit in honor of National Grief Awareness Week, and is also available online. The opportunity was discovered by teacher Angela Germano, who shared it with her students.

"I drew this in memory of my papa," said Lauren about her art piece. "He passed one year before we were going to go to Alaska as a family. That was his dream."

Samantha Ruth, who is launching the healing summit, is a licensed psychologist and the founder of Griefhab.

"I chose childrens' art because I think it depicts grief and loss in such pure, innocent form," Ruth said. "The world ignores grief. It’s almost a taboo subject. Quite honestly, I didn’t know if a calendar with these extremely important awareness days would catch anyone’s attention. Children's art absolutely will."

Congratulations to Lauren and Leilana (below) for bravely turning their own grief into art, for having their creativity recognized on a national scale.