Leadership Greer Class 46 unveiled its class project on Friday — a covered shelter at a local grief support center for Upstate children.
Leadership Greer is a nine-month program hosted by the Greater Greer Chamber of Commerce. It teaches participants about the inner workings of the city, covering topics like Greer’s history, local government and economic development.
Each year, the cohort completes a community project. This year’s project benefits Tomorrow’s Rainbow of the Upstate.
Tomorrow’s Rainbow is a childhood grief support center founded 21 years ago in South Florida. Founder and CEO Abby Mosher said she created the organization after her own family tragedy — a car crash that took the life of her husband and left her then-7-year-old son without a father.
“When we came back to Florida, I was looking for places for my son and I to heal from the tragedy. And I found that — even though it was Broward County, with the sixth-largest school district in the nation — there were no resources for grieving children,” Mosher said. “That’s when I knew I wanted to create a special oasis for families to commune with other families who knew what it was like.”
Many years later, a Tomorrow’s Rainbow location was established in the Upstate. According to Mosher, one in nine children in South Carolina will experience the death of a parent or sibling before turning 18. Tomorrow’s Rainbow provides grief support groups for children, teens and caregivers, in addition to equine-assisted therapy.
This year’s Leadership Greer cohort raised funds to build a 3,200-square-foot shelter at Tomorrow’s Rainbow. Grief support groups are held outside on Tomorrow’s Rainbow’s mini ranch, and Mosher said a covered shelter will allow them to hold sessions more comfortably during the warmer months.
“What makes Tomorrow’s Rainbow really special is the grief counseling that they provide, and being able to do that counseling under a structure like this, especially in the summer, means that they can provide these services year-round,” said Tori Waegele, Director of Programs and Events with the Greater Greer Chamber of Commerce.
All bereavement groups at Tomorrow’s Rainbow are free of charge. For more information on their services, visit https://tomorrowsrainbow.org/. To learn more about Leadership Greer, visit https://www.greerchamber.com/leadership-greer.html.
“To have the community embrace this mission and then invest in such a huge way lets us know that Tomorrow’s Rainbow is going to be here forever,” said Mosher.
GreerNews’ Trey Stewart contributed reporting to this story.
