We are excited to invite you to an upcoming Death & Grief Worker Meet & Mingle, a casual gathering for those of us working in or passionate about the death care and grief space. This event is an opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals, share experiences, exchange ideas, and foster community.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, October 16th
Time: 5:30-7:30pm
Location: Arts Riot, 400 Pine St, Burlington, VT 05401
RSVP: No need to RSVP, but you can let us know if you plan to join so we can get a rough headcount

Whether you're a death doula, hospice worker, grief counselor, funeral director, artist, or someone exploring how we can reframe our relationships with death and dying, this gathering is for you. Let's create space for conversations that inspire and help each of us grow together.

Please feel free to spread the word to others who might be interested. Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones! We hope to do similar events in other parts of the state, so stay tuned!

If you have any questions, you can email us at vtdeathcarecollective@gmail.com

Who We Are

We are a small group of folks whose goals are connection and bringing awareness to Vermont around death and grief.

Noel Simonik (she/her) has been on a journey of explorations into the world of death work to see where they fit in. She hosts advanced care planning brunches along with death and grief dinners. To hold space for the grief we all hold, and to reshape the conversations around loss. Self employed, Organizer, Chef, farmer/herbalist

Claire Wheeler (she/her) is a facilitator and small business consultant currently working as the Director of Inclusive Entrepreneurship with Mercy Connections. Claire contributed to the Wake Up to Dying Project in 2013-2017 and followed the call to end of life work after the loss of her best friend in 2022. Claire believes in buddhism, queer joy, and liberation.

Leslie Ruster (she/her) is an advocate for survivors of sexual and domestic violence at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility. She has worked as an interfaith chaplain in hospice and hospital settings and draws on her training as a counselor, death doula, spiritual director and herbalist in her work to support those grieving and bearing the broken heart of our current world.

Kim Burgas (she/they) is a strategic designer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center with a passion for care until the end (and beyond!). Kim integrates end-of-life considerations into her work, facilitates Death over Dinners, is working on a toolkit to equip people to have more personalized and positive relationships with death through language, and is a trained death doula.

Event Info

Oct 5, 2024, 10 AM to 12 PM

Oct 5, 2024, 5:30 to 7:30 PM

Oct 6, 2024, 2 PM