When Kate Atwood lost her mother at 12, no one around her knew how to help. Her teachers didn’t know what to say. Her friends couldn’t relate.
Even her own grieving father and brother withdrew — “not because of the absence of love, but rather the presence of sadness, grief and guilt,” Atwood said.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Kate's Club
Credit: Photo courtesy of Kate's Club
That loss would change her life in ways she couldn’t have predicted — not only breaking her heart but quietly planting the seed of something that would one day help thousands of others.
Today, across Georgia, more than 15,000 grieving children have found comfort, community and connection through Kate’s Club, which opened its first clubhouse in 2025.
What began with a bowling trip for six kids, funded with $1,200 raised at a “bar night,” is now a statewide network reaching kids in schools, churches, juvenile courts, YMCAs and six permanent “clubhouses.”
It all started with a mother’s love and a daughter’s grief.
Credit: Photo Courtesy of Kate's Club
Credit: Photo Courtesy of Kate's Club
‘Whose mom dies?’
Atwood was 6 when her mother, Audrey, was diagnosed with breast cancer. For six long years, she watched her mom fight — for her life and her children.
On a spring day in April 1991, Atwood, then 12, was in social studies class when word came over the intercom that she needed to report immediately to the office.
Atwood was confident she knew why. The night before, she had rushed home from softball, ready to jump into her mother’s arms. Mom’s bed was empty.
She was being summoned to the hospital to say goodbye to her 41-year-old mother.
She needed grief support, especially from her peers, but had none.
“I was looking around, wondering: Whose mom dies? Who does this happen to?”
The answer, she later realized, was far too many.
“As I grew up, I found out this actually happens a lot,” Atwood said. “And what a powerful moment it would be if we could bring these kids together.”
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal
A radical idea
That simple idea — giving grieving kids a space to be seen and supported — might not sound revolutionary today. But 20 years ago, it was.
“At the time, there wasn’t really a place for grieving kids,” Atwood said. “There wasn’t conversation about grief — especially not in communities, or in public.”
At 23 years old, new to Atlanta and working in marketing for NASCAR, Atwood started the nonprofit from scratch.
”It was terrifying,” she said.
But the community showed up. That first bowling outing led to more events, one clubhouse and then another, and eventually, a movement.
“We always say: Kate’s Club exists because of community, inside and out,” Atwood said. “It’s been co-created. From six kids to 15,000 — that’s incredible.”
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal
A mission bigger than the founder
In 2008, Atwood made a difficult but deliberate decision. She stepped away from leading the organization and, after several years, came back in an advisory role.
“The mission had become much bigger than me,” she said. “What started with pure passion and heart needed an operational foundation to grow.”
That next chapter came into focus when Lisa Aman became executive director in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic.
“The need had never felt more urgent,” Aman said. “Stats were coming out saying the average child knew five people who had died. Grief was unavoidable.”
Yet, Kate’s Club — despite its impact — was still what Aman called “one of Atlanta’s best-kept secrets.”
Her marching orders were clear: Grow Kate’s Club and do it now.
Expanding the vision
Kate’s Club now operates in more than 60 counties across Georgia, and Aman said she hopes to have a presence in all 159 within five years.
The nonprofit’s work is largely twofold:
- Free direct service through clubhouses and community-based groups, serving children as young as 5 and now also young adults up to about 30 years old;
- Training and advocacy — helping teachers, counselors, pediatricians, probation officers and even hospital staff learn how to talk to grieving children and young adults.
“We’re the only year-round, multiyear program in Georgia dedicated solely to grieving kids,” Aman said.
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal
Kate’s Club is training 2,000 school professionals a year and partnering with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, helping medical teams learn how to speak to families after a child dies.
In schools, they’ve gone from serving one grief group in 2010 to nearly 200 school-based programs today, with several more programs starting later this year.
The clubhouses are vibrant, cheery and bustling centers for art, fun and healing. Jordan Karem started going to one reluctantly after her dad died of cancer when she was 11.
She ended up loving it so much she stayed for five years and has been a volunteer for three years.
“I loved doing activities with other kids who had kind of similar experiences to me,” she said.
Now 26, Jordan tells the kids, “‘I have been where you are.’ I show them there is still hope for the future.”
Aman points to studies that show 1-in-10 Georgia children has lost a parent, sibling or close loved one. Among children of color, that number is closer to 1-in-8, she said.
“If we help a child learn how to grieve in a healthy way, it becomes a foundation,” Aman said. “They can use those tools to face life’s other challenges — housing insecurity, food insecurity, anxiety. It all connects.”
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal
‘I got my “why”’
Looking back, Atwood said the most transformative moment in her healing didn’t come at 12 — but seven years later, at 19, while she was volunteering at a grief camp.
For the first time, she shared her story.
“I felt so free,” she said.
That night, a young girl came up to Atwood — calm and familiar.
“She said: ‘You’re Kate. I lost my mom and dad. I’m here with my brother.’ And I thought: She doesn’t have to wait seven years to share her story. That’s why I’m doing this.”
Years later, that purpose still grounds Atwood.
“When you lose someone as a kid, your first question is often, ‘Why me?’” Atwood said. “The biggest gift for me is that I got my ‘why.’ This work — this mission — gave my loss meaning.”
MORE INFORMATION
Kate’s Club Clubhouses
Metro Atlanta
Newnan
Cobb
Coastal Georgia (Brunswick)
Southwest Georgia (Albany)
Northeast Georgia (Athens)
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