Angel of Hope of Central Florida

Hello everyone. We hope this finds all of you well. We wanted to share with everyone we knew (and that certainly includes all of you) to inform you of an important project we are working on that is very near and dear to all of us.

As you all know we have a very special Angel in heaven, Gabriella Grace Bencomo. She spent 12 wonderful days with us and blessed and graced all of us with her strong, fighting spirit. When Kristen was home recovering from her C-Section, she started researching creative ways to remember Gabi here at our home. She knew she did not want a butterfly garden, because we certainly don’t have a green thumb! She didn’t find anything she really liked until she stumbled across the Angel of Hope. To give some history: Richard Paul Evans wrote a novel "The Christmas Box" in which the main character mourns the loss of her child by spending time at the foot of a bronze statue of an angel, "The Angel of Hope". This book spent many weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and the author became besieged with requests as to the location of the statue. The story is fiction, therefore the statue didn't actually exist. However, the outpouring from grieving parents was so overwhelming the author commissioned the statue. The first Angel of Hope was erected in Salt Lake City on December 6, 1994. This movement has spread throughout the country and currently there are over 75 Angel of Hope statues across the country. There are currently 5 in Florida, but none in Central Florida. Erecting this statue in our area has become our mission.

We approached a dear friend of ours who was also the facilitator for our support group, HEAL (Helping Endure InfAnt Loss). We were certain he had heard about the Angel of Hope, but ironically he had not. Over the past 3 years, we have formed a wonderful committee of people and started and non for profit organization, The Central Florida Angel of Hope and our mission is to bring the Angel of Hope to the Orlando area.

To obtain more information about the National Angel of Hope, you can visit the author's website: richardpaulevans.com and click on "statue". You can also visit the website we have set up for our local effort: http://angelofhopecfl.blogspot.com/. Our website and facebook are updated regularly, so you can keep up with our efforts.

We are currently petitioning some central Florida municipalities to place the statue in public parks. We believe strongly that the statue needs to be accessible to all grieving parents.

The statue is approximately 4 feet tall and has a wing span of approximately 5 feet. It is recommended that it be placed on a base, usually granite or other stone, and therefore is quite impressive. The foundry that manufactures the angel produces it at cost, and we have a local monument company that has agreed to produce the base at cost and provide the labor to erect the statue, but the total expense still comes out to about $25,000. We are currently involved in fund raising efforts to purchase the statue. We currently have a time constraint in that Florida Hospital has generously offered to match our fundraising efforts through the end of the year in the amount of $8,000! This means if we can raise $8,000, it becomes $16,000, enough to purchase the statue, and then continue our fundraising for the remaining amount.

So, we are asking for your help. We need to raise as much money as we can by the end of the year. Any donation is welcome, and we ask all of you to spread the news of our efforts. We are currently planning a candlelight ceremony for December 6th, at a location we haven't yet confirmed. The location will be posted on our website, and I will contact you with that information.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. We welcome everyone's help in this important effort. Thanks you!
Kristen, Anthony, Bella, and Gabriella Bencomo
Angel of Hope of Central Florida
P.O. Box 2323, Sanford, FL 32772-2323