BANGOR – In 1990, Maria Brountas, a first grade teacher at Vine Street school, had a little boy in her class who had leukemia.

She didn’t know how to help the other children or herself with the little boy’s situation, and there were few resources geared for teachers whose pupils were dealing with serious health issues and death. So Brountas, together with the late Barbara Eames, founded Pathfinders, a program to help grieving children and teens.

“It’s our 10-year anniversary right now,” said Linda Boyle, Pathfinders coordinator. The first session was held in February 1994. Boyle started as a volunteer facilitator in 1996, and in 1998 she assumed the role of coordinator. Vicki Trundy, licensed social worker and Pathfinders consultant, came on that same year.

“They’ve been leading it [Pathfinders] ever since,” said Deb Jacques, director of community education. The program offers fall and spring sessions, each 10 weeks long, and a six-week summer session.

This year’s spring session will be held 6-7:30 p.m. Mondays beginning March 15, and will end May 24, skipping the week of April 5. The cost for the 10 weeks is $50 per family, and there are scholarships available to those experiencing financial hardship.

Participants meet at Bangor Christian School, 1476 Broadway, but there is no religious affiliation between the program and the school.

People come from towns as far away as Benedicta, Clinton, and Greenville.

“But the bulk of the people come from a 20-mile radius,” Jacques said.

Lois Woodard, her husband, Jimmy, and their two daughters, Jimakea and Cheyanne, were living in the basement of the house they were constructing in Carmel when Jimmy Woodard died suddenly of a heart attack while hunting in the woods nearby on Nov. 4, 2000. He was 49 years old.

Through a neighbor, Lois Woodard, now 42, learned of the Pathfinders program. She and the girls attended every Tuesday night for two years. What did they find most helpful?

“Having people that understood what we were going through,” Woodard said. After losing a loved one it is difficult to concentrate and think, she said, “and you feel like you’re the only one until you go in there.”

Pathfinders provides three groups for surviving adult caregivers: adults who have lost a child, adults who have lost a spouse, and general loss, such as a parent, sibling or best friend.

The group was crucial for Woodard.

“I got so I couldn’t wait for Tuesdays,” she said. Hearing others experiences helped her to realize that her own feelings and reactions were normal.

She also appreciated the help the girls received.

“They try to match [young people] up age-wise and depending on what their loss was,” she said. “They had kids their own age that they could talk to and could listen to.”

“Our focus is the children,” Boyle said. Geared for ages 3-18, the group – which can include parents and children, and even caseworkers from local agencies – meets in a circle each week to hear announcements and the like. Then participants disperse into groups roughly by age: little people, ages 3-5; the littles, ages 6-8; the middle group, ages 8-10, the adolescents, ages 11-13; and the teen group, ages 14-18. Teens are able to attend the program without a parent or caregiver if they choose to do so.

Groups typically have eight to 10 kids, and ages can vary depending on the number of participants. There are two facilitators per group, with a total of 14 facilitators typically involved per weekly session. Often helpers are available as well.

Facilitators are strictly volunteer, Boyle said. They train about two weeks before sessions start with Boyle and Trundy, and then work through the 10 weeks. Often new facilitators are paired with more experienced ones.

“They are the heart of the program,” Boyle said, adding that there are no special qualifications to be a facilitator.

“They just need to be interested in helping kids,” Jacques said. Currently Pathfinders has a pool of about 30 active facilitators.

“I would love to have 50,” Boyle said.

“We’re always in need of volunteers,” Jacques said.

For the young people there is a curriculum, but it is flexible, as there may be a need to deal with issues such as anger. Questions such as “What is death? What happens when you die? Is it OK to be angry?” are discussed. Activities such as art, movement and music help children and teens to express feelings they may not be able to verbalize. There are also activities that emphasize the positive, such as making memory boxes.

“We used to do projects that would help us,” said Jimakea, now 16 and a 10th-grader. The projects involved focusing on memories of the loved one and helping the young people deal with their feelings, she said.

“We made stress balls out of birdseeds and balloons,” said Cheyanne, now 13 and an eighth-grader. One exercise the young people did was to make chalk outlines of themselves and throw water-filled balloons or eggs at them to help them deal with feelings of anger or pain.

“I saw a big difference in the girls,” Woodard said, adding that when they were at Pathfinders they seemed more relaxed, because they had an outlet for their feelings. And everything is confidential.

“So you’re free to say whatever you want,” she said. “The first night you go there that’s the first thing they tell you.”

Woodard said it was difficult for Jimakea and Cheyanne when they returned to school, because other kids would often ask what had happened, sometimes stating incorrect information they had heard. She ended up taking both girls out of school for a time.

“They need to have a Pathfinders program in the schools,” she said. Having an advisor or counselor trained to help grieving young people and their schoolmates would be beneficial, she added.

Participants can return to the program if they feel the need. Some may come back after a few years because they or family members find themselves dealing with different issues.

The $50 fee per family is to help defray program costs. While Pathfinders receives some funding from the United Way and Children’s Miracle Network, “contributions from the community are crucial,” Jacques said, adding that individuals, service clubs and businesses may donate to the program.

To obtain information on the Pathfinders program, to register for the spring session, to become a facilitator or to make a donation, contact Pathfinders at 973-8269.