our community
Grievers Library brings together those who seek grief support and those who seek to support grievers through the sharing of free books and resources on grief and loss. Everyone is welcome to participate in our volunteer-based community project.
you are not alone
grievers
If you, or someone you know, is living with grief, please take a book or two from any of the Grievers Library boxes. They are there for you, or your children labeled with topics intended to help you find the right one for your needs. You are welcome to keep the book, share the book, or return the book for others in need.
host site "stewards"
Do you have time to be a volunteer “library steward?” Library stewards manage an inventory of grief books for adults and youth on a weekly basis to keep a designated Book Box fully stocked. Library stewards keep weekly records of book replacement activity and contact the Grievers Library office to request additional books.
grief professionals
We welcome grief professionals – ministers, rabbis, imams, funeral directors, therapists, and hospice workers to recommend our resources to bereaved individuals. We also invite grief authors to donate your books to the Grievers Library, and we will include your book title in our Authors' Circle.
2024
community activities
April 14, 2024
Work Party #3: A small but mighty team of keen volunteers made short shrift of labelling 200 books in 3 hours! Thank you to Rhy Mack, Susan Gillen, plus April Endsley and Calia Lockey from Seattle Children's "Journey Program" for your fun and focused work preparing piles of books for our book boxes!
February 5, 2024
Grievers Library manned a table at Safe Crossings Foundation's 10th Annual NW Conference on Childhood Grief. The attendees were professionals who support children in grief and our Resource Table provided annotated lists of useful books for bereaved children/teens and their guardians/caregivers.
February 4, 2024
Work Party #2: A team of long-time friends showed up for the Grievers Library: Leslie Ross, Laurel Rech, Binky Bergsman, Kathy Roseth and Cecily Kaplan to clean and label over 200 Bereaved Youth books for distribution at the Safe Crossings Conference the next day.
January 18, 2024
Journalist Elizabeth Sheperd published an article, “Griever's Library offers solace and support for bereaved islanders," in the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber announcing the newly-installed book box on Vashon Island, plus other services currently provided to the broader King County community. Read here
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January 12, 2024
We love community collaborations! The Friends of the Seattle Public Library has added the Grievers Library to its list of Community Support programs. Our Georgetown courier, Leslie Ross, has been delivering bankers boxes of like-new grief books to our Ballard office. 78 books received as of Feb 4. Thank you!
2023
December 31, 2023
We end this year with the sweetest THANK YOU! to Jen Doak, owner of the charming Red Arrow Cafe in Ballard, her bakers and her baristas for donating uncounted boxes of baked goods as gifts to the kind volunteers and generous businesses that support our work with pro bono goods and services.
December 18, 2023
After opening a Grievers Library Book Box in front of the Vashon Senior Center, Volunteer Coordinator Pamela Wickard invited volunteer Project Manager, Pamela Belyea, to speak to local seniors regarding the powerful mission of this fledgling community project. 11 books distributed.
December 15, 2023
Work Party #1! A lively group of UW Library grad students - Connie Cheng, Tia Heywood, Madelynne Hatfield, Drew Burns, Shira Gottfried and Gillian Whelan - spent the afternoon at the Grievers Library learning more about our mission while cleaning and processing 202 grief books. Thank you!
December 14, 2023
Our 3rd "baby" Book Box was installed in front of the Saltwater Bookshop in Kingston by Master Carpenter, Wayne Myers, who built our first three smaller Book Boxes. Wayne's wonderful workmanship can seen in our "baby" Book Boxes installed on Vashon Island, Bainbridge Island and Kingston, WA.
December 11, 2023
Community Service Office Jane Dore picked up copies of Bob Baugher's books: "Coping with Traumatic Death: Homicide" and "After Suicide Loss: Coping with your Grief" to share with Crisis Connections and her team at SPD when helping local citizens dealing with traumatic loss. 20 books donated.
November 1, 2023
Met with four graduate library students at the UW iSchool "Capstone Networking Night" who are interested in completing the "EZ"reads section of our website. It's a challenging job to collect all the copyright permissions and Pilar Sandoval-Moberg and Madelynne Hatfield have signed up to join our team!
October 19, 2023
Attended the "Inspiring Resilience" annual fundraising luncheon hosted by Safe Crossings Foundation. Seattle's First Lady, Joanne Harrell spoke about her own childhood grief and her admiration for the work of the foundation to help bereaved youth find their way through the loss of a loved one. 25 books distributed.
September 2023
Invited by The Journey Program of Seattle Children's, a therapy program for bereaved families, to curate the double bookcase in their offices assisted by volunteers Kathy Frodsham and Jose Castillo. This is an on-going collaboration. 100 books donated.
May 30, 2023
Grievers Library hosted a resource table at "Presence within Absence -- Connections with the Deceased," a presentation by Jennifer Levin with Rebecca Creighton at Town Hall - Seattle attended by an audience of 40. 25 books distributed
March 15, 2023
Sadly, our Book Box at Greenwood Senior Center was the victim of an arson attempt leaving it unusable. We opened a new Book Box, without fanfare, at the entrance to Crown Hill Cemetary in North Ballard. (NW 87th and 12th Ave NW)
February 26, 2023
Hosted a resource table at the Safe Crossings Foundation Community Fair: "Giving Love. Guiding Grief" led by their Youth Advisory Council, located at the Seattle Children’s Hospital Sand Point Learning Center. 75 books distributed.
January 20, 2023
Presented to the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club by invitation of Dennis Newell. We appreciate the opportunity to meet business and community leaders to discuss how grief affects everyone and to introduce the Grievers Library mission to an audience of 40. 4 books distributed.
2022
October 26, 2022
Attended the Spousal Support Group at the Greenwood Senior Center at the invitation of GL volunteer, Mary Viggiano. Presented the scope of our work to an appreciative group. 14 books distributed.
October 9, 2022
Hosted a resource table at American Foundation for Suicide Prevention "Out of the Darkness" community walk at Seattle Center. Met 50+ curious participants and distributed 35 books to grieving parents, spouses, siblings, teens, friends and colleagues who have lost a loved one to suicide.
October 7, 2022:
Visited Vashon Senior Center and met with Program & Volunteer Manager Pamela Wickard to discuss siting an Affiliate Book Box in close proximity to their Center in the downtown area. Attended a "Sharing is Healing" grief support group that meets at the center on Fridays led by Diane Brenno.
October 4, 2022
Attended the Annual Luncheon of Safe Crossings Foundation. After a year of Zoom meetings, we met our colleagues serving children in the grief community face to face, including ED Josh Clements from Our Treehouse in Bellingham. SCF supported our work in 2022 with a $1,500 grant. Thank you!
September 30, 2022
Presentated at the Greenwood Senior Center, GL's first public talk in the community with loyal volunteers in attendance. We met our first Library Steward, Will Ringness, who volunteered to re-stock Book Box #1 on Fridays.
August 11, 2022
Book Box #1 Launch Party in front of the Greenwood Senior Center. Live music. Welcoming speeches. Cookies + lemonade. And, a group of enthusiastic supporters. The 1st Grievers Library Book Box is now open 24/7! See video HERE. Speaker in the photo is Jane Dore, SPD Community Service Officer & GL donor.
August 5, 2022
An Op Ed, "grievers mini library filled with solace," written by volunteer Project Manager Pamela Belyea was published in the Seattle Times announcing the public launch of the Grievers Library. This was our first PR piece - a positive buzz has begun! Read article HERE.
May 25, 2022
Grad student, Sandra Bobman, presented her end-of-year Capstone project to her UW iSchool peers explaining her work in collection development, especially curating WorldCat lists for bereaved individuals. Sandra was a key member of the Grievers Library team during Winter and Spring 2022 quarters.