The WARM Place
The WARM Place
The WARM Place provides peer support group for children from ages 3 to 18 and young adults 19 to 25 who have lost a loved one. These services come at no cost to the families.
By Courtni Fields
Thirty years ago, a mother and a doctor teamed up to help children of Fort Worth deal with grief.
In 1989, Peggy Bohme and Dr. John Richardson, a prominent pediatrician, teamed up to create The WARM Place, the first children’s grief support organization in Texas. The idea for The WARM Place originally came in 1984 as Bohme mourned the death of her son, Michael.
She realized her daughter, Meghan, needed a place where she could express her feelings.
“Meghan needed to meet another child that could understand her feelings, and so that's how it all really got started ... to search for that missing link,” Bohme says.
The WARM Place provides a peer support group for children from ages 3 to 18 and young adults 19 to 25 who have lost a loved one. These services come at no cost to the families.
As The WARM Place celebrates accomplishments this year, the teams also grieves the loss of its co-founder, Dr. Richardson, who died early 2019.
“He just excelled at problem solving and leadership, and always could see things through with a clear mind. Even until the day he died, he was still working on projects,” Bohme says. “He never stopped, and it’s a huge hole.”
In the 30 years since its opening, The WARM Place has helped over 38,000 children and families with its different programs. And that number keeps rising every year. Family Night, one of the newest programs those kids can enjoy, happens six times a year, and features baseball games, days at the zoo, and other activities.
“The idea behind it was to give our families an opportunity to have fun and create new memories together,” Shelley Spikes, executive director, says. “Often times we hear of families who are grieving the loss of a loved one, that they don’t know when they’ll laugh and have fun again and it's important that you make new memories as a family after death.”
To continue Richardson and Bohme’s mission, The WARM Place relies completely on private donations and fundraising at two major events, A Cool Night and Race to Remember Them 5k. “The community really is what has made The WARM Place possible, to make it at no cost to children,” Bailey says.
The three-decade anniversary will be celebrated in The WARM Place's Birthday Bash from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 24, at 809 Lipscomb St. Doors will be open to locals who want to help celebrate the nonprofit's progress over the years.
Visit thewarmplace.org to RSVP and learn more about The WARM Place mission.
