Memory Box Programme

We are a non-profit organisation, involved in the Memory Box Programme, where our members paint memory boxes to be presented to parents who have lost a child at birth, we support local hospitals including; Nepean, Katoomba, Dubbo, Mudgee and Northwest Hospitals.
We also paint smaller boxes to contain the jewellery of patients who pass away in the Emergency and Cancer wards of; Nepean, Dubbo, Mudgee, Camdon and Gulgong Hospitals.

This piece was in the Penrith Press in August 2009.

Memory boxes are offering grieving loved ones a light to shine through their darkest days.

Started a decade ago by the Mountains and Rivers Folk & Decorative Painters Inc, the project hands over beautifully painted boxes to families who have lost loved ones in hospitals.

"People can put a certificate, lock of hair, a footprint of their child, a wrist band or whatever they care to keep" association spokeswomen Laraine Palmer said.
"When we began the project 10 years ago, we used to see hospitals give the deceased's possessions in a bag, which did not look nice. This box and it's possessions provide tangible proof of that childs existence and can help with the grieving process."

Mrs Palmer said the assocation supplied the boxes to Nepean, Katoomba and Dubbo Hospitals.
"The boxes are presented to the parents of a child who has passed away at birth or shortly thereafter so they can keep their memories of their child in it" she said.
"We don't charge for the boxes and parents can choose what they like,"
Boxes are bought by the group and given to a team of volunteers for painting every May.
Merriel Adair co-ordinates where boxes go depending on the requirements.