Aaron and Jeff sit down with Lisa Lehman and Jenn Mattucci from the Moon Area School District to talk about Club Hope, a student-led grief support group that’s helping kids heal after losing a loved one. What started with six students has grown into a thriving community built on compassion, connection, and the belief that no one should face grief alone. Lisa and Jenn share how their own experiences inspired the club, how students have embraced it, and how educators across Pennsylvania can bring this kind of support to their own schools.
Aaron and Jeff sit down with Lisa Lehman and Jenn Mattucci from the Moon Area School District to talk about Club Hope, a student-led grief support group that’s helping kids heal after losing a loved one. What started with six students has grown into a thriving community built on compassion, connection, and the belief that no one should face grief alone. Lisa and Jenn share how their own experiences inspired the club, how students have embraced it, and how educators across Pennsylvania can bring this kind of support to their own schools.
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Voiceover:
Welcome to Duty Free Lunch, the official podcast of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Join us as we unpack the issues that matter most to you, from cutting-edge classroom strategies to thought-provoking policy discussions. If it impacts PSEA members, it's on the menu.
Aaron Chapin:
Hello and welcome to Duty Free Lunch. I'm PSEA President Aaron Chapin. Today I'm joined with PSEA Vice president Jeff Ney. Hey, Jeff.
Jeff Ney:
Hi, Aaron. How are we doing today?
Aaron Chapin:
Doing very well. Very well. It's another great day here in Harrisburg.
Jeff Ney:
Yes, it is.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah. Well, normally we would kind of goof around a little bit in the beginning.
Jeff Ney:
No goofing around today?
Aaron Chapin:
No goofing around today. I want to get right to it. We got a lot of questions.
Jeff Ney:
We have some good guests.
Aaron Chapin:
Two great guests from the other side of the state, and we're going to be talking about a really important issue. And I don't want our knucklehead dialogue to really-
Jeff Ney:
I would agree with this one. Yes.
Aaron Chapin:
All right, so you ready?
Jeff Ney:
I am ready.
Aaron Chapin:
So let's get right to it because today, as I said, we're being joined by two incredible educators from the magnificent Moon Area School District. That's out there in western Pennsylvania, Jeff.
Jeff Ney:
It is. I've visited Moon. It's a very lovely area.
Aaron Chapin:
It's a great school district. We're being joined by Lisa Lehman and Jen Matucci. Did I say it right?
Jeff Ney:
Matucci.
Aaron Chapin:
Matucci. I'm sorry, Jen. They run a grief support group for students who have lost a loved one. Lisa is the founder of Club Hope, which began at the middle school and has since grown into what she describes as one of the most meaningful parts of her 24-year teaching career. Jen has helped carry on the mission forward into the high school, giving students a space to connect, honor their loved ones, and build resilience together, Jeff.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah, it's very nice.
Aaron Chapin:
Lisa, Jen, it is wonderful to have you here with us. Welcome. Hello.
Lisa Lehman:
Hi.
Jenn Mattucci:
Hi. Thanks so much for having us.
Aaron Chapin:
You betcha.
Jenn Mattucci:
We really appreciate the opportunity.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, we appreciate all that you're doing. We can't wait to share this story if they haven't seen it in The Voice yet, but it's a really important issue and topic for us to kind of dive into and I hope we're going to inspire some other members around the Commonwealth to maybe do something similar. So Lisa, I'm going to jump into it right with you. Tell us what first inspired you to start Club Hope?
Lisa Lehman:
Sure. So four years ago we started Club Hope. I had two students, they were twins, a brother and a sister, and they lost their dad four years ago. And I myself experienced the same thing with my own children in 2016. My first husband passed away from prostate cancer. And when I met these two young kids, I was like, you know what? I want to do something more because I feel like these kids really could use each other and support one another. My son was 10, he was in fifth grade when Mike passed away, and then my daughter, Malina was in kindergarten when Mike passed away. And then six years later I met, like I said, these two young people and I just thought, I feel like we could do something. So that's how it started. It started out with six students.
Jeff Ney:
So your own loss, the experience with your own loss, how did that help you shape the way that you support the students that you encounter that are kind of going through some of the same things?
Lisa Lehman:
So I've always been as positive as I can be with this whole experience as a whole. Like I said, I lost my first husband, Mike, in 2016. And I'll never forget meeting with his oncologist, Dr. Sherry, who was just incredible. And he came to me a couple of days before Mike passed away and he said, "I'm really so sorry. There's nothing more that we can do at this time."
And I just remember looking at him and saying, "Well, what about my kids?" Because I didn't really think more much about myself. I just was wanting to make sure that they were still going to have a good life, and that was really important to me. And he looked at me and he said, "Well, they're going to follow your lead." And I have stuck by that for the last 10 years because I just want to be a good example and I want to be a positive example for my own children. They already lost one parent and they don't need to lose two parents. So I just felt I really wanted to be a positive role model. And I feel the same for my students that are experiencing loss.
Jeff Ney:
It's just another example, Aaron, how the educators around Pennsylvania care about their kids in their classroom, just the same as they care about their own kids.
Aaron Chapin:
Absolutely right. And so Lisa, this club, you said it started out with six, right? And it's really grown. So what's behind the growth? Why is it growing?
Lisa Lehman:
Honestly, right now, I think it is word of mouth. We had our first meeting last Monday and my room was completely filled. Every year it's growing, but this year I just feel like it's really growing. And I think a lot of that is because the students are starting to invite other students that they need. They're starting to be more comfortable sharing about their loss because of Club Hope and us teaching them that it's okay to talk about it, about loss. It's super important to talk about it. So now we have 25 kids. That's how many that were here on Monday, or a couple might've been absent, but approximately 25 students, and we started with six, four years ago.
Jeff Ney:
So Jen, why did you decide to bring it to the high school level?
Jenn Mattucci:
Yeah, I started at the middle school here at Moon and I worked with Lisa probably almost 10 years ago. We coached on a class together and we became friends. I ended up having both of her kids as students and just became close with the family, and I loved seeing what she was doing. And last year I moved up to the high school to teach at the high school, and I saw it as an opportunity to take that positive impact and continue it up through the high school. And I was lucky that we had a few senior students that were just really great leaders and wanted to bring the awareness to the high school as well as have that support for anyone who needs it.
Jeff Ney:
So were there any differences between how you brought it to the middle school versus the high school? How did those two programs interact with each other from your move?
Jenn Mattucci:
Yeah, absolutely. So obviously high school kids are much different than middle school kids. They're a lot of times way more hesitant to open up and get involved with something like this. So I take the approach of very student-led. So I have some great leaders and I let them lead and kind of direct how it's going to go. And if a name comes to me from a counselor or a principal or a teacher, I figure out a way to let the students lead that and let the students invite them in. And that's very different. We also don't do as many activities in the high school because we have a shorter amount of time. It's during the school day, but we do come over to the middle school. Anyone in the high school club that wants to come to the middle school meetings comes over and we kind of work together and hang out.
Aaron Chapin:
That's amazing. That's great.
Lisa Lehman:
Sorry, they're the mentors for the middle schoolers. That's the whole concept of it, to have the mentors come down to support the middle schoolers. And then the middle schoolers have something to look forward to as well when they get to high school. And then it's really neat. We have four college students that were in Club Hope and they actually still join us on Zoom at meetings for about 15 minutes and just talk to the kids and just share their experiences with them. And then when they're home on breaks, they'll come in and visit too.
Aaron Chapin:
That's a real good sense of community that you're building there with this program. So Lisa, is there a moment or a story that really captures what Club Hope is all about?
Lisa Lehman:
Sure. So it's actually my last meeting of the year. So for the past three Mays, our last meeting, we always celebrate with a cake. And on this cake, I ask all of the students in club hope to get their loved one's name for me and their birthday. And so then I draw that out for the baker at Costco and they have our lost loved one's names and their birthdate. And so this cake is filled. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like this coming May, we might have to have two cakes. I just feel like seeing all the names together on one visual image of the cake and celebrating their birthdays and also celebrating that we're collaborating and working together at Club Hope is really meaningful to me.
Jeff Ney:
So part of this whole thing is also activities. And I was reading you do things like gardening or art or memory projects with these kids. How did you come up with these activities? Is this something that you created or found somewhere?
Lisa Lehman:
So I have a really good connection with the Highmark Caring Place in Warrendale, which is Cranberry, Pennsylvania. And there's also three other Caring Places. I think that they are a valuable free resource for students in need. And there's one in Harrisburg, Erie, and Cranberry and Pittsburgh. So I think actually my own children and I went there the summer after my husband passed away and I just could see a community there. So I think that that also helped me spark that, hey, I kind of want to have my own caring place at my school. So that was pretty neat.
Jenn Mattucci:
And they have tons of activities and suggestions and information, and we do get a lot of ideas from there.
Jeff Ney:
Were there other activities that really the students really seemed to gravitate towards? I just named a couple, but were there any others that really stood out?
Lisa Lehman:
Sure. So I think that, let's see.
Jenn Mattucci:
Pumpkins.
Lisa Lehman:
The pumpkins we do in October. So they get to paint pumpkins and they can tie it in any way that they would like to. A lot of the kids last year, they had everybody from Club Hope sign their name on the pumpkin. So that was really neat that it showed Unity. And then they wrote Club Hope real big on the pumpkin. So that's a fun one that we'll have coming up. And a lot of times we get donations from our own community so we don't have to pay for these resources like the gardening Day for Mother's Day, we have planting in case they lost their mom or aunt or grandmother. We just feel like it's a really important piece to show for Mother's Day.
And Inches Nursery, which is just a little local nursery here in Moon Township, they donated everything this year, so that was remarkable. The soil, the pots, the plants, and then we're outside and we plant together.
Aaron Chapin:
That's great.
Lisa Lehman:
That is past year. We're starting to get a lot of community awareness, it's really growing a lot. We have a therapy dog that comes to visit once or twice a year. We just started that last year. His name's Hank. He's with Alliance of Therapy Dogs Nationwide. So that's always a big hit. They love seeing Hank. And then also sometimes the Caring Place will come and visit us to do activities. Our good friend Sean from the Caring Place will come. And last year we made gardens that they could take home. So that was really fun.
Aaron Chapin:
Those are some great activities. So Jen, what's it like to watch the students support each other through this peer connection?
Jenn Mattucci:
Well, it's really a unique experience because I feel like a lot of times teenagers are in their phones and when they have a tough time, they're more likely to kind of, I don't know, hide or retreat within themselves instead of making connections. And the connections that the Club Hope kids are able to make are really truly genuine. And it's not something that you see a lot of. So it's really kind of uplifting in a way, even though they're going through such a hard time that they're able to reach out to one another and make that genuine connection that in this day and age you don't really see a whole lot of. So it really has been a positive experience for them and for me.
Aaron Chapin:
So this question-
Jenn Mattucci:
I know they even have their own thread.
Aaron Chapin:
Oh, do they?
Jenn Mattucci:
[inaudible 00:13:27] together. So that's really neat.
Jeff Ney:
So this question is going to be for both of you, but Jen, I'm going to stick with you first. So have you seen Club Hope Impact Ripple out throughout a wider school community? I mean, obviously not every student in the high school is going to be coming to one of your gatherings, but have you seen the way that they interact with each other impact the wider school community?
Jenn Mattucci:
Absolutely, and I think especially this year when more kids are learning about Club Hope, because we are doing some more community outreach type things. We had a booth at our homecoming carnival that had a lot of people asking, oh, what is Club Hope? And I think it's really helpful for the members too, to see the community reaching out and being supportive and being that just reinforces that they're not alone. It's not that they're not alone just because they have other people that have gone through the same thing. They're not alone because the whole community is behind them.
Jeff Ney:
And Lisa, how about on the middle school level? Same basic thing?
Lisa Lehman:
Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I just got a phone call the other day, and this was a community piece, the high school volleyball girls team. So they always honor breast cancer awareness and they need to pick a charity to give money to. They raise money and then they choose who they're going to give it to. And they called us because a lot of our students have lost their loved ones through cancer. So they felt like ours connected with what they needed to do. And so they invited us this Thursday to come to their volleyball game and they're presenting a $1,500 check to Club Hope.
Aaron Chapin:
Oh my gosh. Wow, that's amazing.
Lisa Lehman:
Pretty amazing.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah.
Jeff Ney:
So with the students that you talk to in your classrooms and dealing with this very, very powerful emotions that they're going to have, have you seen that illustrate itself in other ways? These students are more empathetic to the others in the building and are more observant of when kids just need somebody to give them a hand or listen to them? Have you seen that at all?
Lisa Lehman:
I think this year, especially because there were so many new students. So I know that they're reaching out to others and trying to support them through friends that they're talking to, or Hey, this person lost their dad or their mom. And then they're like, oh, well I know I have an answer for you. You can come to Club Hope and be with us. We'll help you.
Jenn Mattucci:
And I've even talked to kids who are not part of Club Hope and I haven't really experienced grief in their life, and they asked me about Club Hope and I explained it to them and they show empathy to where they're like, wow, I hadn't even considered that being an experience that some of my classmates have. And so I think just being there and having that information out there is creating a lot of empathy just in the community and in the classroom.
Aaron Chapin:
That's beautiful. That's absolutely beautiful. So I said at the beginning, obviously this is a fantastic story we wanted to share because of all the great things you're doing for our students, but obviously I think there's going to be some of our colleagues out there that are listening to this and they're like, I want to do something like this in my school. What advice, and either one of you can jump in on this one, I'm not going to, you figure out who wants to talk, but what advice would you give for other teachers, other support staff that want to start something like this?
Lisa Lehman:
Well, we're definitely here for them. We would love to support them in any way. They're more than welcome to email or call us at any time so that we can help them. But also just keep it really simple initially and use your resources like the Highmark Caring Place.
Jenn Mattucci:
We have some elementary school teachers who are trying to start something in the Moon Elementary schools, and we said to them, just start simple. Like there's the Grief Awareness Day, start with that, encourage people to wear blue and talk about it. And that's just a perfect place to start.
Lisa Lehman:
Children's Grief Awareness Day is November 20th.
Aaron Chapin:
November 20th.
Jeff Ney:
Okay.
Aaron Chapin:
And I assume when you first started this, Jen, I assume, or at least excuse me, you had support of your district's administration as well. It's probably an important component.
Jenn Mattucci:
Of course. Yes. Especially our math coordinator. He's for the whole district, right?
Lisa Lehman:
Yes.
Jenn Mattucci:
Yes. He did a great job of helping Lisa to establish it, and then I went straight to him to get his input and all of that.
Aaron Chapin:
Obviously very important for anybody listening just to make sure you work with your school district administration.
Jeff Ney:
Absolutely.
Aaron Chapin:
No surprises.
Jenn Mattucci:
Absolutely.
Jeff Ney:
Again, it's a school community.
Aaron Chapin:
Exactly. Jen, what are your hopes for the future of Club Hope at the high school and beyond?
Jenn Mattucci:
Yeah, we only started last year and it was very small last year, and I feel like it's growing so rapidly, and with all of the fundraising efforts that we're doing now, I just hope to expand the activities that we do. Maybe we can get out of the school. If somebody had a loved one who really loved fishing and they want to take some of Club Hope members on a fishing trip, I'd love to be able to help facilitate that and the support of the community and the school hopefully will allow us to do that.
Jeff Ney:
This is just such a fantastic thing. So Lisa, if you could sum up the heart of Club Hope in just one sentence for everybody, what would that be?
Lisa Lehman:
You're never alone in your grief and sadness. We're all there for each other.
Aaron Chapin:
There you go.
Jeff Ney:
My goodness.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah.
Jeff Ney:
Aaron, this was really, really good and poignant.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, look, again, when this was in our Voice magazine, I read it. Obviously we have a lot of great stories, but there's those stories every once in a while that just kind of jump out and touch you. And this was one of them. And I heard such great things about it from our staff as well as some of their colleagues, and I'm just so proud of them.
Jeff Ney:
And in a day and age where it's so important for our students to learn that it's okay to express their feelings and to feel the things that they're feeling and have an outlet and know that they've got some great educators that are there to listen to them and to kind of help them guide them through what's going on. I think Jen said at first, they're not going to find it in their phones. They're going to find it in their communities, and this is absolutely great.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, Lisa and Jen, I am so proud of you. I'm so proud that you're just teachers just trying to make a difference in the world, and it is clear that this program is just fantastic, and we're so proud of you for obviously taking a difficult subject and making the most of it and making an impact on these students' lives and other students in the process. So thank you for what you're doing.
Lisa Lehman:
Thank you. Thanks for having us. This was great.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, it's an absolute pleasure, a very important topic everyone, and so I'm glad we were able to get them on. Jeff, that is it for time today.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah.
Aaron Chapin:
You got it. No pop quiz question. We're going right to the end. Our guests today have been Lisa Lehman and Jen Matucci. Thank you again so much for joining us. It's been an absolute pleasure to meet you. I hope I get out there to Moon and meet you in person and maybe see a little bit of the magic going on out there.
Jeff Ney:
We have some friends out there in Moon.
Aaron Chapin:
I know we do. I know, I know. I'm hoping we can get out there because it's a wonderful thing. But thank you very much.
Lisa Lehman:
Thank you.
Jenn Mattucci:
Thank you.
Aaron Chapin:
Listeners, that's all we got for you today. Thanks for tuning in. Have some feedback? Got to share it by sending us an email at podcast@psca.org. I'm Aaron Chapin.
Jeff Ney:
And I'm Jeff Ney.
Aaron Chapin:
And you have been listening to Duty Free Lunch. Bye for now.
Voiceover:
You've been listening to Duty Free Lunch with the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Visit psea.org/podcast to learn more. And don't forget to subscribe and share. Paid for by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.