By Lisa Carolin
Ele’s Place, the nonprofit organization that supports grieving children and families, invites Chelsea area residents to be part of a fundraiser for its Ann Arbor location, which will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 8 a.m. at the Ann Arbor Marriott at Eagle Crest, 1275 S. Huron St. in Ypsilanti.
It’s the 11th Annual Healing Hearts Society Fundraising Breakfast.
Ele’s Place has four locations in Michigan, and its office on W. Liberty Road in Ann Arbor is the closest one to the Chelsea area. The goal of the fundraiser is to raise money to offer more programming at the Ann Arbor location.
“Since 2007, 61 children have attended Ele’s Place,” said Stacy Bodner, events coordinator for Ele’s Place in Ann Arbor, referring to children from the Chelsea area.
Bodner says that Ele’s Place groups are forming at both Chelsea High School and Beach Middle School.
“Chelsea school staff reached out to us after a number of deaths in their school community in 2016,” said Bodner. “We have supported their staff and students via phone and in person since then.”
The Ele’s Place groups at the high school and middle school offer an eight-week peer support group held at the schools during the school day with one-hour sessions each week.
“These groups are designed to reach grieving students who might not otherwise be able to access support at our onsite program,” said Bodner. “We have done two grief groups at Chelsea High School, and are starting one at Beach this fall.”
Interested students should contact a teacher or counselor, and will then be asked to complete a survey and get parents’ consent.
It’s thanks to former Chelsea resident Sheila Morrison-Patrias and a group of Chelsea residents that the Ann Arbor location was created. Morrison’s daughters were ages 2 and 4 when her first husband died in 1991.
“A few years later, my older daughter was having difficulty with the loss of her dad,” said Morrison-Patrias. “I contacted Ele’s Place and we started driving to the Lansing location. During that time there were a lot of deaths of students at Chelsea High School. I knew that Ele’s Place was a resource for families, but Lansing was a long way to drive.”
That’s when Morrison-Patrias along with other Chelsea residents began working with the CEO of Ele’s Place in Lansing to set up a closer location, and they succeeded when Ele’s Place began using a church on Zeeb Road in Ann Arbor.
Another Chelsea connection is that Howdy Holmes, President and CEO of Chelsea Milling Company, who is the co-chair of the Ele’s Place Capital Campaign along with Michigan’s first lady, Sue Snyder.
For more information on tickets to the Ele’s Place fundraiser, go to: https://www.elesplace.org/events/ann-arbor-healing-hearts-society-breakfast.
