Hunterdon County honors local Girl Scout for creating grief support space for children
FLEMINGTON, N.J. (Hunterdon County) — The Hunterdon County Board of Commissioners has honored local Girl Scout Erin Grady for earning the Girl Scout Silver Award after creating a grief support space designed to help children cope with loss.
Grady was recognized with a proclamation during the board’s Dec. 16 meeting. The Girl Scout Silver Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout Cadet can achieve and recognizes leadership, service and community impact.
Grady identified a need for age-appropriate grief support, noting that children often experience loss differently than adults and may lack supportive spaces and resources during difficult times. To address the issue, she partnered with Wright & Ford Family Funeral Home to design, build and furnish a welcoming space tailored to grieving children.
She led the project from start to finish, securing financial and in-kind donations of furniture, books and toys from the community. Grady also curated age-appropriate grief resources for families to borrow, created resource bags for ongoing use by the funeral home and constructed the bookcases herself.
“On behalf of the Board of County Commissioners, it is an honor to recognize Erin with this proclamation and thank her for creating a lasting resource for families during some of their most difficulty moments with this support space. Her project will make a meaningful difference in lives of children and their families – exemplifying the very best of what community service and youth leadership represent,” Commissioner Director John E. Lanza said.
In addition to the physical support space, Grady expanded community awareness of childhood grief by presenting an educational program at the Hunterdon County Library. The program offered families guidance on helping children process loss.
While the Silver Award requires 50 hours of service, Grady completed more than 80 hours, county officials said.
Grady was also honored during a pinning ceremony and ribbon-cutting ceremony Dec. 7 at Wright & Ford Family Funeral Home, marking the official opening of the children’s grief support space.
