CLEVELAND — Before 2026 begins, a group of community leaders is helping people release their grief.
"You don’t have to grieve alone. Reach out. Find some place that you can trust. People you can trust. Spaces you can trust, so that you can release and heal,” said Sharri Thomas, Co-Founder of Rivers in the Desert.
For more than a year, News 5 has been keeping up with Sharri and her husband, Anthony Thomas, ever since they launched Rivers in the Desert, a mobile grief therapy unit.
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Now, the couple is helping more people.
"Being there for people a lot of times is helping to build people because that’s what it’s about. Building people,” said Anthony Thomas.
During Monday’s end-of-the-year healing vigil in Cleveland, the Thomases worked alongside Cheryl Pritchard, the founder of Planting Positive Seeds and Retention 216.
Pritchard said she organized Monday’s event to give the community a safe space to "let go and let God," which she hopes will lead to renewal.
She also hopes more safe spaces like Monday’s event will be held in the future.
"I need to let go of some things in my life, and I thought that this would be a good opportunity to express that and give others the opportunity to do the same,” said Pritchard.
Rivers in the Desert has more events planned next year, and they encourage people to follow them at Rivers in the Desert NEO on all social media platforms.
