our news
Here you can read thoughtful articles about our work published in local newspapers and watch a talk on "Living after Loss" by our founder at Town Hall, Seattle in June '24.
Grievers Library also participates in public events. Our posts below impart the many ways that we are active in our community.
2025
UPCOMING WORK PARTIES to label grief books: Saturday, March 8 & Saturday, May 17, 2025 from 1 to 4pm. If you'd like to volunteer, please go here.
January 11, 2025
Work Party #5: Surprise! Nine enthusiastic volunteers showed up and labeled over 300 books in less than 3 hours! Thank you to Cecily Kaplan, Jennifer Wedderman and her son Bobby Hay, Leah Crane, Dabney Youtz, Analie Sevin and her husband, John Konafay, Lynn Williamson and Laura Mueser.
January 8, 2025
Soaring Spirits Intl. hosted a Seattle get-together to announce their April 26 Camp Widow "Pop-Up" at the Edmonds Waterfront Center with workshops, discussions + resources for widows + widowers. We met with founder, Michele Neff Hernandez and Deputy Director, Angeline Thomas, who is also a Seattle chaplain.
2024
December 19, 2024
Our 8th Book Box, serving bereaved individuals in South King County, was installed by Adam Juarez on the spacious grounds of the Bonney-Watson Funeral Home in SeaTac. Courier David Henry delivered 150 books to stock the Book Box for the next several months. It's a beautiful spot to find a meaningful book!
December 2, 2024
Once again the Town Hall Book Box was cleared out of all its books by an unhappy individual but this time they smashed the acrylic door pane and ripped it off the hinges. Sad. Our Library Steward Ryan Patterson replaced the Book Box the following day and re-stocked it with 35 grief books.
November 16, 2024
Work Party #4: Four focused and fun volunteers labeled a record 250 giref books in 3 hours! Thank you to Julie Tall, Dabney Youtz, Laura Mueser and Liz Stone for spending your free Saturday afternoon prepping books for our soon-to-be installed Book Box in SeaTac.
October 13, 2024
UW Librarian Suzan Parker Peebles volunteered to help man our Resource Table at the Seattle "Out of the Darkness Walk," sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.at Seattle Center today.We had many heartfelt conversations with survivors of suicide. 75 grief books distributed.
October 8, 2024
Volunteer carpenter Bob Perkins re-built and re-installed vandalized Book Box #2 at the University Congregational United Church of Christ, adjacent to a contemplation space by the rear doors of the church. It is our intention to service bereaved NE Seattle residents and UW students with our new installation.
September 16, 2024
In her talk, "Growing with Grief" at the Vashon Senior Center, Pamela Belyea introduced unique and inspiring projects created by bereaved individuals to honor their loved ones and provide loving support to other grievers. 12 senior citizens attended and chose to take home 16 grief books from our Resource Table.
September 10, 2024
We are excited to have a Book Box hosted by Town Hall Seattle on Seattle's First Hill! Town Hall is a wonderful organization with a strong, diverse community presence. Ryan Patterson, TH Building Manager, installed Baby Book Box #04 near The Forum doors at the rear of the building. Come & check it out!
August 21, 2024
Our 4th "baby" Book Box is installed, this time in downtown Edmonds on the property of the Sound Credit Union. Edmonds craftsman 2024 VOLUNTEER of the YEAR Wayne Myers built the Book Box and installed it beside a comfy bench that invites grievers to take a break and review a few books.
July 21, 2024
After 3 years under the generous fiscal sponsorship of Friends for Survival, a suicide bereavement organization in Sacramento CA, the Grievers Library applied for and, today, received its 501(c)3 tax-exempt status from the IRS! With a newly-formed board of 5 dedicated directtors,we pledge to continue our important work.
July 1, 2024
Town Hall Seattle posted Pamela Belyea's June presentation : "Living with Loss | Healing Grieving + Connecting" on youtube HERE. This talk is intended for any bereaved person seeking a deeper understanding of the unfamiliar terrain of the grief journey. Her talk ends with questions from the audience.
June 17, 2024
Hosted by Town Hall Seattle and the Center for Creative Aging, Pamela Belyea presented, "Living after Loss | Healing, Grieving + Connecting" to an in-person and virtual audience. In addition, the Grievers Library set up a Resource Table and 22 grief books were taken home by grateful audience members.
June 15, 2024
The Grievers Library hosted a resource table at the "Giving Love and Guiding Grief Community Fair" led by the Youth and Young Professionals Councils of Safe Crossings Foundation. We met with bereaved parents and youth who had suffered the loss of a parent or sibling and distributed 8 grief books to attendees.
June 11, 2024
Volunteer carpenter Bob Perkins installed one of the 5 "Mama" Book Boxes he built on the property of the University Congregational United Church of Christ. We had hoped that the high traffic location would make it more accessible. Sadly, the books were stolen and the box was badly vandalized. Stay tuned - the box will be relocated to a less public spot nearby.
May 30, 2024
UW Library students Madelynne Hatfield and Pilar Sandoval-Moberg completed their Capstone project for the Grievers Library with the presentation of a PowerPoint describing their process for soliciting grief book excerpts from authors and publishers for the EZreads section of our website.
May 21, 2024
Invited to speak in person to the grief support group run by The Compassionate Friends of Federal Way, Pamela Belyea gave an overview of the "grief journey" quoting from classic books written for bereaved parents. Our onsite Resource Table provided 18 grief books to members of the group.
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 grief books for our book boxes!
February 5, 2024
Grievers Library manned a Resource Table at Safe Crossings Foundation's 10th Annual NW Conference on Childhood Grief. The attendees were professionals who support children in grief. We provided annotated lists of useful books for bereaved children/teens and their guardians/caregivers, plus 10 books.
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.
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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. 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 at the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club by invitation of Dennis Newell. We met business and community leaders to discuss how grief affects everyone and introduced the Grievers Library to an audience of 40. 4 books distributed.
2022
October 26, 2022
Invited by GL: volunteer, Mary Vigiano, attended the Spousal Support Group at the Greenwood Senior Center to share our work with 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
Presented 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.
May 25, 2022
2022 VOLUNTEER of the YEAR! 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.