If you've ever wondered what difference your donation to the Crisis Center is making, read on. Over the past two weeks, our Trauma Response Team has gone out twice - once to a school full of kids and faculty grieving over the senseless murder of their two classmates, Colin and Megan, by the kids' own father.   Two days ago, we sent another team to another school, again to console classmates and teachers of Felecia, a beautiful 9 year old girl, who was also murdered.  Colin and Megan attended Carrollwood Day School, an elite private school, while Felecia attended Edison Elementary, a public school.  But the almost inconsolable grief their classmates and teachers felt was one and the same and the question they all asked, "How could this happen?" was equally haunting and disturbing.

You have to be a very special person to serve on a Crisis Center Trauma Response Team and not everyone makes the cut.  First, you have to be asked and then attend special training.  Having made it through training doesn't guarantee that you will be sent out when there is a crisis, though.  Only the most compassionate and competent staff members get to go.  Dealing with the emotional aftermath of loss is never easy, but when the cause of the loss is an unfathomable act of violence, grief is often amplified beyond comprehension and it takes a very special person to help people get through, which is where you come in. 

Over the past six months, we have sent out Trauma Response Teams on six separate occasions at a cost to the Crisis Center of between $1300 and $1500 a day.  There is no funding for these teams and the only reason they exist is because of donors, like you.   Your generosity made it possible for us to be there during a host of different tragedies and now for the classmates of three children whose lives were stolen away by people they trusted.  And while we can't bring back Colin or Megan or Felecia, we can help all the kids who knew them to get through this awful time in the hope that tomorrow will be a better day.  As one of the children who attended one of our trauma counseling sessions said, "Just knowing that someone who has nothing to do with our school or families cares about us makes all the difference!"  On behalf of all the grieving children, and countless other survivors of tragedy, thank you for making all the difference.