Ashley McNamara has been a group leader in Naples with our children for almost four years.

She immediately felt a connection with Valerie's House because of her own loss as a child.

My life was perfect, going as expected and planned - high school, college, marriage…..life had other plans. Within four months, we lost my Dad to cancer, and I was pregnant with my first child. There was nowhere to go. No grief counseling. No support groups. We trudged on the best we could, and we made it through everything together.

Sierra Ritchey was approaching her senior year at Florida Gulf Coast University. She was excited about her future when the horrifying news that her older brother, Kenny, had been killed in a car accident.

Kenny had a history of seizures but never experienced one while driving. She was in shock, and so were her parents.

"We didn't know how we were going to make it," said Sarah in this video below, talking about her mother's loss at the age of 19. "I was all my younger sister had. We were determined to make it." As a volunteer children's group leader and in her Advisory Committee role, Sarah has been instrumental in leading outreach and fundraising efforts for Valerie's House in Charlotte County.