Dear Compassionate Friends,
Thank you for the very warm welcome you all shared these past few weeks. I was blessed to see the names and receive messages from so many friends I have made here at TCF. To those I have yet to meet, I look forward to getting to know you better as we work together now and in the future. It has been a sacred honor to serve the TCF mission these past six years alongside the caring and compassionate TCF Staff and Volunteers under the leadership of Shari O’Loughlin.
As Shari steps into the next chapter of her outstanding career of service, I want to send my gratitude to her for her dedication, hard work, and wisdom as the TCF Chief Executive Officer. Under Shari’s tenure, The Compassionate Friends was able to stabilize our nonprofit business practices, enhance the way we work with and support one another as staff and volunteers, ensure healthy financial practices, secure new funding sources, model professionalism, kindness, and compassion as our leader, and so much more. It has been my privilege to serve with Shari. We are not saying goodbye, just see you later, as Shari will continue to be an important part of the TCF family.
Looking ahead, we have recently completed our five-year strategic plan with input from across The Compassionate Friends, including our Chapter Leadership, Online Moderators, Regional Coordinators, Donors, Staff, Foundation Trustees, and TCF Board Members. We have outlined goals, strategic initiatives, and activities for TCF into 2030 that support our mission and vision. We will be scheduling meetings with our volunteers as we enter 2026 to share more about these plans and how, together, we can ensure that TCF remains a healthy, mission focused, and caring organization well into the future.
In addition to moving the strategic plan forward and maintaining a healthy national nonprofit organization, we will be prioritizing several avenues for ongoing communication, support, training, and connection among our staff, board of directors, and volunteers. Some of these will be:
This past weekend, I was pleased to visit our Nashville, TN Chapter along with Pamela Hagens, Nashville Chapter member and TCF Board Member, and Dennis Gravelle, TCF Board Vice-President. I want to thank Robin Hunt and Ron Henson for their hospitality, and for welcoming us to their monthly chapter meeting. Their dedication, compassion, and caring shined bright throughout the evening as they created space for all who attended, both long standing and new members. I am looking forward to December and being with our TCF Potomac, Maryland chapter providing supportive words for their candle lighting service and the TCF of the Treasure Coast chapter to offer words of welcome. Over the past few years, I have had the honor of meeting so many of our faithful volunteers at our regional facilitator trainings and national conferences. I am looking forward to meeting many others over the next year as we continue to enhance and expand our opportunities to connect and grow together.
We have a great responsibility to support, guide, and serve the Compassionate Friends mission. We stand on the shoulders of so many who have come before us, who have believed in and proven that peer support works. We now have the opportunity to honor their service by being in service, ourselves, to others who will come behind us. This is the great vision of Simon Stephens, our founder, who recognized that bereaved families grieving the death of a child could support one another in unique and unmatched ways. I am honored and ready to serve alongside you in servant leadership of this life-changing mission.
Use the chapter locator to find out information about chapters in your area. Locate a Chapter by selecting your state and zip code.
Having been apart of TCF since Dec. of 1979 when my first beloved daughter Jessica passed at 18 1/2 months, I have seen many, many good and not so
good events to for and about TCF. TCF is part of my soul and I wish well and long standing with the 5 yr strategic plan. I wish to thank all for the
leadership and hard work on everyone’s part. Looking forward to attending leadership trainings and workshops on the regional and national level.
So looking forward to the national conference in Baltimore, TCF had a national way back a few years into my journey with TCF.
What struck me and heartens me is that you and two board members visited a chapter in Nashville connected with its leaders and members during a support group meeting. I am heartened even more by your plan to visit two more chapters. With the exception of the past few years, The Compassionate Friends National leadership has always regarded chapters as the heart and soul of our organization. Executive directors and board members of the past were attentive to chapter leadership on the Chapter Leaders Facebook Group. I hope we see the return of that attentiveness. No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. I wish the very best for you, Andy, and look forward to ongoing communication and transparency that you have been known for.
Hey there, Andy! Congratulations on your new position! You will recognize me if you look on my Facebook page! 🙂