The death of a child is devastating and it’s important to the family that the child always be remembered. That’s why members The Compassionate Friends (TCF) of Fort Dodge will participate in an annual worldwide event designed to honor the memories of all children, regardless of age, who have died. The Chapter is joining December 13 with hundreds of organized memorial services around the world for The Compassionate Friends19th annual Worldwide Candle Lighting, an event now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting in the world.

The local candle lighting will be part of a special service held at 6:30 p.m., at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and will feature music, readings & poems. Annually tens of thousands of families, united in loss, light candles for one hour during the Worldwide Candle Lighting, held the second Sunday in December. Candles are first lit at 7 p.m., local time, just west of the International Date Line. As candles burn down in one time zone, they are lighted in the next, creating a 24-hour wave of light as the observance continues around the world.

With the theme “that their light may always shine,” the Worldwide Candle Lighting has grown larger every year with formal services last year in all 50 United States and Washington D.C., as well as at least 19 countries around the world. TCF’s nationalwebsite, www.compassionatefriends.org,is expected to receive and post information on more than the 550 services submitted to and listed on its website last year. The website will also have open for posts a Remembrance Bookwhich will receive thousands of tributes from family members and other caring individuals.

To contact The Compassionate Friends of Fort Dodge, call Misty DeLanoit at 571-2762 or www.tcfoffortdodge.com. For more information about the national organization and locations of its Chapters nationwide, call (877) 969-0010 or visit TCF’s national website, www.compassionatefriends.org. The Compassionate Friends has a presence in at least 30 countries and is the world’s largest self-help bereavement organization.