[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6871]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                THE OUTSTANDING SERVICE OF JUDITH OLIVER

 Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to pay 
tribute to Judith Oliver, Director of The Children's Room Center for 
Grieving Children and Teenagers in Arlington, MA.
  Ms. Oliver has dedicated her professional life to aiding children and 
families who suffer the loss of a family member. A week from tomorrow, 
the Center will celebrate its fifth anniversary with a dinner and an 
auction, and she will be presented with an eminently well-deserved 
award for excellence.
  Ms. Oliver became Director of The Children's Room in 1992, when it 
was a program at Hospice West in Waltham. She organized it as an 
independent charity in 1999, and since then it has grown from helping a 
group of ten children to serving over a hundred children and sixty 
families.
  Today, The Children's Room is a beacon of hope and help for bereaved 
children and others in their family. It provides a safe and caring 
environment where children, teenagers and their families can obtain the 
support they need in grieving over the death of their loved ones.
  Ms. Oliver's extraordinary caring, compassion, and dedication are the 
hallmarks of her career. In many ways, she's a pioneer in this very 
important field. She earned a Master's Degree in Counseling at Loyola 
College in Baltimore, with an internship in grief counseling at Hospice 
of the Chesapeake in Maryland and at Grandma's House, a Washington, 
D.C. home for children with AIDS.
  As we all know, the need for these counseling services is especially 
great today, Judith Oliver's leadership is a model for all communities. 
Massachusetts is proud of her. We're fortunate to have her, and I join 
her many admirers in congratulating her on this award.

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