Butterfly Release

May 19, 2026 | The Hope and Healing Center
Each May, we gather to honor our late children, siblings, and grandchildren with a butterfly release. At this annual event butterflies are released into the serenity garden at the Chapter's meeting location. Chapter members are encouraged to bring their families, children, and friends. 

TCF National Conference

July 3-5, 2026 | Baltimore, MD
The Compassionate Friends holds an annual conference in the summer, which many of our local chapter members attend and recommend. Learn more on the national conference website here.
A National Conference of The Compassionate Friends is unlike any other conference you may ever attend. It is a place where you can go and know that you truly are not alone as you travel your grief journey. Every person comes for the same reason, a child has died. It is a place where “friendship, understanding, and hope” are more than just words. For almost three and a half decades, The Compassionate Friends has held National Conferences in different locations, from the east coast to the west coast, from north to south. Today it’s normal to have 1100-1400 bereaved parents, siblings, and grandparents attend.​

Worldwide Candle Lighting

December 13, 2026 | Location to be Announced 
You are encouraged to bring a framed photo of your loved one. 
In December, The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor the memories of the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and grandchildren who left too soon. As candles are lit at 7:00 p.m. local time, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memory of all children gone too soon. TCF’s WCL 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 of children who have died, but will never be forgotten. ​