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FAIRMONT - CREST, which has already found success with multiple support groups, is now forming one for grief with the help of local partners.
The new group is a collaboration between the Sinn Family Celebration of Life Center, CREST and In the Clouds Counseling. CREST is not new to support groups, having done several over the last decade.
"Currently, we have a low vision support group, a Parkinson’s caregiver support group, a Parkinson’s support group, so that both the caregiver and the care receiver come, Alzheimer’s dementia caregivers and a general caregivers in Trimont," CREST Support Group Facilitator Joyce Peterson said.
Through these groups, Peterson said the people in them learn so much from each other.
"Somebody’s been through this," she said. "They’ve been through the same things that you’re dealing with right now, and they can offer what they tried, what worked, what didn’t, who else they’ve talked to, who else they saw for a physician. They glean a lot of information off each other, and they develop friendships and connections with each other, too."
The seed for this group was planted in January of 2024, when Ean Sinn first opened Sinn Family Celebration of Life Center in Trimont.
"Joyce and I connected right after we opened," he said. "I had just wanted to reach out to her to see how we could get involved with CREST. Joyce had some ideas. She came with a notebook and a calendar, and we talked for a long time about stuff we could do. I think grief has always been something I’ve been involved with as a funeral director, and I knew that with Joyce’s support groups, it was a natural fit to try to get something going at some point."
Enter Dunnell native Jennifer Petersen, who recently opened In the Clouds Counseling in the Martin County area. In the same vein as with Peterson, Sinn and Petersen connected about potential opportunities, and the workings of a grief group came together.
"Ean and I had actually gone to high school together," Petersen said. "What better way to connect with somebody I already know and have that connection with from high school than to give back to our community and our surrounding counties that have suffered immense grief and loss."
The group meetings will happen for free on the last Tuesday of every month, which this month falls on the 29th, at 6 p.m. at the Sinn Family Celebration of Life Center in Trimont for the first meeting. It is open to anyone who is able to attend. Peterson said Sinn has an extensive library of grief books that they will use and that people in the grief group can use.
"The reason I was always interested in grief group is the first funeral home I worked at had a grief library back in the garage that was available, but it wasn’t something that was seen by the public," Sinn said. "It’s something people can’t use if they don’t know it exists, so I’ve been collecting grief books for a long time."
While they are still discussing how it will work, Peterson said they will also want these meetings to have an education piece people can keep with them throughout the month between meetings.
"Something they can take home and reread and see if they have any questions," she said. "If somebody has more needs than once a month, that can be worked out, too."
In having a group like this, Petersen said it provides an opportunity outside of what is already offered and may be hard for some people to access.
"This isn’t counseling where if you’re in counseling, you have to have a diagnosis, you have to have a mental illness, you have to go through insurance," she said. "This is free. This is a support group to get people to come together to know that you’re not alone. There are educational pieces on sudden loss, unresolved grief, traumatic grief, and what are some ways you can take it home and process yourself too."
To be able to provide this group to this area, Sinn said he is hoping this will grow into something that can continue for a long time and fill a need for local communities.
"It’s something you notice as a funeral director as you’re checking in with families down the road," he said. “You hear that they might be struggling with something or don’t really know if what they’re feeling is normal. I can reassure them on a personal level, as in working with them. Seeing it from somebody else’s perspective is going to do more than I ever could. If they talk to somebody else who lost their spouse, that holds a lot more weight than me telling them that what they’re going through is normal."
For more information, visit crestvolunteers.org.