Maria Georgopoulos
President
I have worked in mental health for more than 20 years, focusing on children and grief for much of that time. I have worked with hundreds of families who want to protect their children while managing their own grief. I help them understand that their children are feeling grief, too. My work with children who experienced deaths on September 11, in Hurricane Katrina, and during the pandemic allows me to guide families through a challenging but survivable process.
Our mission at Roula’s Kids is to help children and their families grieving a death find support and connection in the Hudson Valley through age-appropriate grief groups with others who are going through something similar. Roula’s Kids, named for my mother who died when I was 20, provides a safe space where we validate and normalize the many feelings children can experience in their grief and helps them find ways to cope. Children receive age-appropriate support to help them understand more about death, cope with all they’ve lost, remember their person, and learn how to live a life that honors the person who died.
Death is just as devastating to children as it is to adults, with one important difference; children don’t have enough information to make sense of it all because they are still learning about the world. They are not mini adults and definitely do not understand all the big words we use to talk about the challenging things that happen to us and to the world. Children often come to me feeling alone and confused in their grief. I see it as a gift to provide them with a space that feels so free they can ask all the questions they want about death and feelings (and they do have many). A special kind of magic happens when they encounter other children going through something similar. All of a sudden the world is a little less scary because there are others who have similar questions and confusion, others in the world they can turn to who will struggle and persevere with them.
Roula’s Kids is committed to creating an atmosphere that promotes openness, trust, respect, and safety for everyone who engages with us and our services. We are committed to providing services that affirm the worth and value of all individuals. We believe that a climate of respect, curiosity, and trust opens the door to discussions that explore different beliefs and values. This requires more than just good intentions. Achieving diversity is a deliberate commitment to embracing it in all its forms. That includes embracing differences in race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, ability, and ideas; it’s about recognizing and celebrating the unique perspectives and experiences that each individual brings. These discussions assist us all in understanding and honoring individual differences, including but not limited to experiences related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religious and spiritual beliefs, physical and mental abilities, and socio-economic status.
Grief is affected not only by what kind of loss one has had and all the identities one holds, but also by social forces in the environment related to power and privilege, such as racism, sexism, ageism, and classism, as well as other forms of marginalization. Recognizing and celebrating the unique perspectives and experiences that each individual brings helps us to foster empathy and understanding so we can better address the complex challenges that all grievers face.
We aim to uphold culturally sensitive communications with everyone we interact with, understanding that inclusiveness and social justice require an ongoing assessment of ourselves and our organization. We take personal and organizational responsibility to grow in our awareness, reduce barriers to services, and increase our multicultural competence with humility and open hearts.
Board of Directors
Helen Pappas
Helen is Roula’s eldest daughter. She makes sure her mom’s memory stays alive by maintaining family traditions that were so important to Roula and making sure her two sons have a strong sense of who their grandmother was. She believes in helping children grieve by providing them the care and protection they need as they go through a very challenging time in their lives. Having a background in the federal justice system focusing on research and operations for 25 years, Helen now uses her research and organizational skills to plan memorable trips for her travel clients.
On the board, Helen serves as the Vice Chairperson and assists with human resources and program compliance efforts.
Willow Kristen Harrington
Willow Kristen Harrington is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 40 years’ experience helping people cope with loss and serves as Chairperson on the board of Roula’s Kids. She also serves on the leadership board of Old Dutch Church, which houses Roula’s Kids groups.
Sherry Schachter
Before she retired as Executive Director in 2021, Dr Schachter was the Director of Bereavement Services for Calvary Hospital and Calvary Hospice where she facilitated weekly bereavement groups and directed Calvary’s Camp Compass®, the hospital’s summer camp for bereaved children and adolescents. Prior to Calvary Hospital, she worked at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
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Dr Sherry is a recipient of the prestigious Lane Adams Award for Excellence in Cancer Nursing from the American Cancer Society and for more than 40 years has worked with dying patients and their family caregivers. She is a past president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and an invited member of the International Work Group for Death, Dying and Bereavement (IWG). She currently is the president and Vice Chair of the National Widowers’ Organization and the Men’s Grief Network. Dr Sherry publishes and lectures on issues related to dying, death, and loss. She is married 60 years and has 5 children and 10 grandchildren. On the board of Roula’s Kids she serves as Secretary.
Sylvia Arakas
Sylvia’s role on the board is to provide support with fundraising and marketing. An artist by trade, she sees beauty in any situation, allowing her to add positive, new ways to help our organization thrive. She knows that the death of someone significant changes the trajectory of a child’s life and wanted to be part of a community that ensures children have a place to share their feelings, have them validated and know that they are loved.
Maria Spiro
Roula was Maria’s aunt and the first loss she experienced in her life at a young age. Maria has been working for an asset manager in various roles for over 17 years. She is currently a project manager, planning and executing on strategic initiatives of the firm. On the board, she serves as treasurer, overseeing the financial planning of Roula’s Kids. She is excited about the opportunity to help grow our organization that accompanies children through such a difficult time in their lives by providing them with a safe space to understand more about themselves and their grief.
David Conca
David Conca served in an advisory role to Maria in establishing Roula’s Kids and has served on the board since it was organized. David is an engineer and an attorney, licensed in New York and Michigan, where he resides with his family.
How we do this
These services are provided at no cost to families thanks to the generosity of many people who believe in this work and have donated significant funds to make Roula's Kids a reality. Roula's Kids was seeded with initial capital donated in memory of my mother, Roula. Established as a 501(c)(3) organization, Roula's Kids solicits and receives tax-deductible donations from individuals and seeks grants from foundations and corporations to support its work: providing much-needed grief counseling services to children and their families. Roula's Kids is governed by a volunteer board of trustees, which ensures that Roula's Kids operates in accordance with the highest ethical and legal standards. Please join us in supporting this important work.