National Media Stories and Videos from before and after the 2011 Worldwide Candle Lighting
WCL Sept. 2011 Press Release September 2011 Worldwide Candle Lighting Press Release
WCL Dec. 2011 Press Release
Listen to the beautiful song, Long Before Your Time, created by our sister organization, Bunderverband Verwaiste Eltern from Germany especially for the Worldwide Candle Lighting (Translation)
View Letter from TCF Executive Director About Worldwide Candle Lighting in Dear Abby December 4 column
The day has now passed, but the 15th Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting Sunday December 11 united tens of thousands of bereaved families and friends worldwide in a remembrance of all children who have died in a manner that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious and political boundaries
The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting unites family and
friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor and
remember children who have died at any age from any cause. As candles
are lit at 7 p.m. local time, hundreds
of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memory of all children gone too soon.
Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting
on the globe, the Worldwide Candle Lighting, a gift to the bereavement
community from The Compassionate Friends, creates a virtual 24-hour wave
of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. Hundreds of formal
candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle
lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance
of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.
The
Worldwide Candle Lighting started in the United States in 1997 as a
small Internet observance but has since swelled in numbers as word has
spread throughout the world of the remembrance.
In 2011,
information was submitted to TCF's national website on services in 18
countries outside the United States including 550 services, as
this special day continues to grow. TCF has been joined in recent years
by chapters of several organizations including MISS, MADD, Parents of
Murdered Children, SIDS Network, Gilda's Club, Boys and Girls Clubs, and BPUSA and for several
years services have been held in all 50 states plus Washington D.C. and
Puerto Rico. There is no way to know how many hundreds of additional
services open to the public are held in the U.S. and around the world
each year without the information being sent to us.
The
Compassionate Friends and allied organizations were joined in 2011 by
local bereavement groups, churches, funeral homes, hospitals, hospices,
children's gardens, schools, cemeteries, and community centers. Services
have ranged in size from just a few people to nearly a thousand.
Every
year you are invited to post a message in the Remembrance Book which
will be available, during the event, at TCF's national website. In 2011
in that short one day span, more than five thousand messages of love were
received and posted from every U.S. state and Washington D.C., every
territory, as well as dozens of other countries, with some posts in foreign
languages.
Here in the United States, publicity about the event is widespread, being featured over the years in Dear Abby, Annie's Mailbox, Ann Landers column, Parade Magazine, Guideposts
magazine, and literally hundreds of U.S. newspapers, dozens of
television stations, and numerous websites and hundreds of personal
blogs. Information on the Worldwide Candle Lighting and planned memorial
candle lighting services (of which we are advised) is posted on TCF's
national website every year as the event nears.
View Dear Abby's column from December 4, 2011 and read a letter from TCF's Executive Director Pat Loder about what this event means to those who have suffered the tragic loss of a child. Here's a news video posted December 8, 2011 about The Compassionate Friends and the Worldwide Candle Lighting by KLTV in Tyler, TX.
If no Worldwide Candle Lighting service was held near you this year,
please feel free to plan one open to the public this year or next year. You are
welcome to use TCF's "
Suggestions to Help Plan a Memorial Service in Conjunction with The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting©"
to help in planning the service. All allied bereavement organizations,
churches, funeral homes, hospices, and formal and informal bereavement
groups are invited to join in the remembrance. When you firm up plans
for your candle lighting, open to the public, please return to this site
and submit the event information form so TCF can list your service with
the many hundreds held in the United States and around the world. The
Worldwide Candle Lighting gives bereaved families everywhere the
opportunity to remember their child . . .
that their light may always shine! Media Stories and Videos on the 2010 Worldwide Candle Lighting
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You are welcome to use any of the Worldwide Candle Lighting posters we have created to help publicize next year's event. Worldwide Candle Lighting Posters