Discussion On Building Back After Loss Comes To Millburn

MILLBURN, NJ — Many Millburn residents have experienced tremendous loss over the past year and a half — whether it be from the COVID-19 pandemic, or more recently from the devastation of Hurricane Ida.

As residents are now coming out of tragedy, a group of organizers decided to create an event where people can engage in conversation focused around resilience and healing for the community.

The Traumatic Loss Coalition for Youth and Inner Harbor will be facilitating the event entitled “Resilience: Moving Forward from Grief and Loss.” It will take place at Congregation B’nai Israel on Thursday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. Led by experts in grief and loss, the in-person event will cover ways to cope with overwhelming loss and empower both students and adults with practical tools and information.

Naomi Panzer — one of event organizers and the founder of UPGirl — said she decided to create this event in response to not only the town dealing with the pandemic for the past 18 months but also the transition that students are now making to in-person learning.

“The stress level of the kids returning to school, and kind of being expected to just be all ‘rah rah we're back at school’ … It hasn't been an easy transition especially for the high school kids, and especially for the seniors who are expected to just go along with their application process,” Panzer said.

She mentioned that the community is also dealing with the death of a high school senior that happened in the beginning of the school year. But Panzer said the purpose of this event is not to dwell on the negative.

“It’s really not going to be this depressing program like recounting of all the stuff that everyone has been through, but rather, kind of an uplifting and positive and empowering program so that people can feel like they have strategies to move forward and to deal with all these tragedies,” Panzer said.

The program will be split into two separate groups — one for high school students and one for parents/adults. Panzer said they are organizing it this way because she felt that parents would be much more open and willing to share if their children weren’t in the room, and vice versa.

People who register for the event will be able to submit questions to discuss ahead of time through email, and everything will be kept anonymous.

Panzer said the beginning of the program will be an overview of resilience strategies, how to get through grief and understanding that it is an ongoing process. There will also be opportunities for people to share experiences, as it is meant to be an interactive event.

“When so many tragedies hit you at once they can make you feel sort of paralyzed, so we want to make sure that our community is heard and seen, and supported,” Panzer said.

Panzer added that she hopes this event is not just a one-time thing and that they can continue to hold these discussions to support the community’s emotional wellness.

Regardless of vaccination status, anyone who attends the event must wear a mask. People can register via this link.

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