WILBRAHAM – On Nov. 8, Rick’s Place held the ribbon cutting for their new building located at 85 Post Office Park in Wilbraham. Rick’s Place has been providing support and grief counseling to children and families who have lost a loved one since March of 2007. The organization was created in honor of Rick Thorpe, who lost his life in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Thorpe was a young father who grew up in Wilbraham.

Rick’s Place’s new location was donated entirely by their landlord, Glen Garvey of The Garvey Group Inc. The Garvey Group previously used the space. When they decided to move, Garvey offered the space to Rick’s Place. Garvey gave the organization the opportunity to work directly with an architect to make sure that the space was refurbished in order to meet all the needs for the children they provide support to. Garvey took on all design and construction expenses. Next door to Rick’s Place’s new space sits Trombley Associates. The Trombley family donated all the furniture to be used in the new location.

The new facility now has six meeting rooms, which will allow Rick’s Place to expand on the services they specialize in. Rick’s Place’s main focus is to provide free counseling to children who are grieving, parents who are raising a grieving child, or offering support to people who are parenting a grieving child while currently grieving themselves.

Diane Murray is a retired educator who took over as the director of Rick’s Place three years ago. Murray expressed her excitement regarding the new location and shared how overwhelmed she is by the immense support and donations Rick's Place has received in order to get the new facility up and running.

“This level of generosity is unheard of in our field! We are all incredibly grateful for the generosity that has brought Rick’s Place to this beautiful new space!” Murray commented.

Considering Rick’s Place was given the opportunity to have a say in the layout of their facility they were able to incorporate rooms to match the needs of every type of grief counseling they offer. Some of these rooms are larger for big group meetings and others are small for one on one or small group meetings.

“Confidentiality is a big piece of what we offer to our families, I feel like we can achieve that and a sense of comfort in the new location,” said Murray.

Since Rick’s Place started in 2007 the amount of children and families who come to them for support has grown exponentially. The new facility will allow them to provide counseling to all of these families and even add additional programs to help the children even more.

“It doesn’t matter how long ago the tragedy happened, we are always available,” Murray added.

The next sessions will be starting up in January of 2019. To find more information one the counseling that Rick’s Place offers or a way to make a donation, their website is https://www.ricksplacema.org/.