Just Do Kindness Launch
On Sunday, July 28th, 2019 Julianna’s family, friends and loved ones hosted a community event to celebrate the launch of the JDK foundation and commemorate the beautiful life of Julianna.
The event was filled with experiences that created joy and inspired kindness. There were fun stations like jumping castles food trucks and gaming experiences, as well as activities Julianna loved like slime making, hair braiding and other crafts and activities.
One of the most powerful tributes to Julianna is to ensure that her bright light continues to shine, inspire and bring hope to the lives of others who most need it. For this reason, the funds raised in this campaign will benefit the Dr. Jay Children’s Grief Centre to help them provide much-needed support to hundreds of children, youth and families facing grief, terminal illness and traumatic loss.
Our initial goal for the campaign was $25,000 and we thought that was setting the bar extremely high. However, by the end of the campaign, we were extremely humbled and grateful to everyone that helped us triple our goal and donate $75,000 to Dr. Jay Children’s Grief Centre. The $75,000.00 that was raised will fund the wonderful Camp Kindness for 3 years.
Here is the story of Camp Kindness:
As we were looking for our first initiative as a foundation, we realized children experience grief and trauma differently than adults. We have learned, other than private therapy, there is not a lot of reputable support in the GTA. Dr. Jay Children’s Grief Centre’s goal is to provide care, support and education to grieving youth and their families while building strength, resilience and hope. They do all of this with no government funding while ensuring that over 600 grieving children, youth and families receive support annually.
The Centre has a camp called Camp Erin, where children from ages 6-17 attend a transformational weekend camp that combines traditional, fun camp activities with grief education and emotional support, free of charge for all families.
Over the years the Dr. Jay’s team has noticed that not all parents and children want to separate from each other during such a vulnerable time. Since Camp Erin has proven to be such a metamorphic experience, they believed everyone who was interested still deserved the opportunity to participate. As a result this August -with the JDK campaign- they launched their first bereavement family day camp. “Camp Kindness”; after the JDK Foundation, inspired by the memory and spirit of Julianna.
