LAKEPORT — The death of a child can be the worst loss anyone can experience, according to Diana Lunas, a Lakeport resident and mother.
Two Marin County mothers, Catherine Stern and Carole Mahoney, created a concept they believe will help ease the pain. It”s called Project Grace.
The organization was inspired by the Jennifer Steinman documentary “Motherland.” It was founded to offer grieving mothers an opportunity to share the memory of their departed children and together serve a community in need.
Project Grace has been on eight service trips to communities in South America, Mexico, Europe and also here in the U.S. where there is need.
Lunas will leave Saturday to travel with Project Grace along with nine other participants on a service trip to the African country of Tanzania. They will assist the Matonyok Parent”s Trust orphanage and The Foundation For Tomorrow (TFFT) schools in that region.
“None of us ever expected to belong to a group like this,” Lunas said.
Following the loss of Lunas” oldest child, Josh, in June 2008, the Joshua Miles Hansen Memorial Scholarship for the Creative Arts at Clear Lake High School (CLHS) was established. Since 2009, the foundation has awarded $12,000 in college scholarships to graduating seniors who have demonstrated a passion and talent for continued education in creative writing, music or theater arts.
Josh was a graduate of CLHS in 1999 who held office in student government, participated in community service projects, served at historian reporting Terrace and CLHS news in the Record-Bee, and appeared in eight drama productions during four years. Lunas said Josh”s passion for writing was evident from a very young age and he had a unique ability to express himself through all the creative arts.
Lunas has dedicated herself to theater arts as producer for CLHS musicals in recent years and makes sure the students have an enriching and magical experience.
She said she is passionate about the foundation created in her son”s name.
“We wanted to honor Josh”s memory by encouraging new artists to continue to share their special gifts with the world,” she said, adding the scholarship seemed like a perfect way to do that. “We are grateful to our generous community who continue to support our efforts by participating in the annual event, ?Full Moon for Josh.””
She will be honoring Josh by sharing music and dance with the children she meets in Africa.
The Matonyok Parent”s Trust and TFFT serve children who are largely orphaned because their parents have died from AIDS. The Tanzania trip includes assisting in the garden, enhancing and improving the schoolhouse, working with nursery-aged children and working in the classroom. Lunas said resources are scarce and efforts will be made to create and/or provide reusable teaching tools for the students.
TFFT”s goals are to improve the quality of life in the orphanages and children”s homes it serves in Tanzania. Currently, TFFT has 76 children on full-boarding school scholarships and has helped more than 600 children through their outreach programs.
TFFT has enhanced libraries, computer centers and after-school tutoring programs. The foundation is directed and run by Tanzanians. Ideas and programs are developed not based on what has worked in the West, but what works in Tanzania.
“I am anxious for this journey to begin,” Lunas said. “This is a beautiful way for me to honor Josh. I carry his spirit of compassion and service with me and I look forward to the treasures of humanity I will experience along the way. “
Lunas” husband, Mike Lunas, Lakeport attorney and judicial candidate, said, “I am glad Diana has this opportunity to travel with Project Grace. She has always been an extremely dedicated and amazing mother to our children, and I am proud of her efforts to share her special gifts with young people here in Lakeport, and now, with children in Africa. Josh would love that his mother is doing this.”
