CRANBERRY TWP — No one wants to think about grieving children and the pain they're feeling, but that doesn't make it any less real.

Krista Ball, manager of Highmark Caring Place's Warrendale site, is “hoping to change the culture,” when it comes to how people approach grieving children.

The Caring Place, a center for grieving children, hosted its annual volunteer recognition dinner Monday night at the Marriott Hotel in Cranberry.

The theme of the night was warmth and compassion, which Ball said “is really what makes the Caring Place work.”

About 300 volunteers attended the ceremony, 240 of which were celebrating annual volunteerism. Thirteen of those volunteers were honored for reaching five-year service milestones, and 10 were honored for 10 years of service.

Payge Craven Sofranko of Cranberry was one of the five-year honorees, though she is now in her seventh year of service.

“Caring Place meant a lot to me,” Sofranko said. “When my first husband died, my son was 19 months old.”

Although Sofranko said it was difficult for the Caring Place to help her son because he didn't have any memories of his father, she said that the program greatly impacted her, which prompted her to become a volunteer.

“It's just a wonderful establishment,” she said. “I highly recommend it.”

Christine Michael and Mikki Bitzer are two other Cranberry volunteers who joined the organization after seeing a need in the community or experiencing grief themselves at a young age.

“I volunteer because I lost my parents very young,” Michael said, “and no one respected the need for help there.”

Ball said the program continues to grow, with 15 to 20 volunteers attending each of the two training classes Caring Place hosts every year.

Since its beginning in 2009, the Warrendale site has served more than 500 children and families through its peer support groups and more than 1,000 people in the community.

According to a news release, Caring Place has seen a significant increase of 54 percent in families served in Butler County from 2015 to 2017.

The Caring Place also has implemented five school-based peer support programs throughout the Seneca Valley School District and served as an active member of the Butler Collaborative for Families, The Cranberry Area Diversity Network and the Butler County Suicide Coalition.

In addition to honoring the service of its volunteers, Caring Place asked the Faller family to speak about the role it had with their family.

Evan Faller brought his daughters, Avery, 11, and Rowan, 7, to Caring Place in 2017 after they experienced the loss of their mother.

“Families change, as ours did on Feb. 2, 2016, when we were given a leukemia diagnosis,” Faller said. “A few people mentioned the Caring Place to me, and it sounded like a good program.”

Faller signed his family up for the 2017 winter session, which consisted of 10 meetings to work the children through their grief.

“Avery and Rowan were amazing troopers on the nights of our program,” he said.

Faller said the drive from their Clarion home to the Warrendale location could range from an hour and a half to two and a half hours, depending on the weather.

“The facility is great, but the people are just amazing,” Faller said. “We are here tonight to celebrate the service that you volunteers have given to us and so many families like us. There will always be a need for this as more families work through their grief journeys.”

Ball emphasized that programs like Caring Place would not be possible without support from the community.

Caring Place's next orientation will be Aug. 8. More information about the organization's volunteer opportunities and services is available on its website at www.highmarkcaringplace.com.