Our mission is to foster resilience, strength and endurance in children who have experienced the death of a parent.
We pledge to provide free services through mentoring and peer groups to help grieving children navigate their lives, in childhood and beyond.
We are committed to meet children where they are in the grieving and healing process.
We will rally around them and provide a safe space to grieve and heal.
We will make sure that, despite the obstacles, these children will RISE.
Our Mission
R.I.S.E. - Resilience is Strength and Endurance
Our Story
R.I.S.E. Northwest was born of a personal tragedy.
In 2004, Tracy Gyllenhammer's life turned into a spouse's worst nightmare. Without warning, she became a widow and a single mother. She was emotionally devastated: she had lost her husband; her two sons had lost their beloved father overnight.
With great difficulty, yet with determination, the family began to grieve and heal.
A few years later, Tracy connected with her sons' basketball coach, Joe; he had also lost his wife and was raising his three young boys alone.
Tracy and Joe's love for their children, their faith, and their passion for basketball brought together two broken families and they became a blended family of seven.
Their union began a new chapter for the entire family.
And yet, the children continued to grieve the loss of their parents as they navigated adolescence and adulthood and reached significant life milestones.
Tracy felt the pain and grief of her sons deeply, and she decided that no child should ever have to walk this path alone.
R.I.S.E. Northwest was born in August 2021, out of her commitment to equip grieving children with life skills and support.
