In 2008, Reecie lost her two-year-old son, Clinton Ryan. In the aftermath of that unimaginable loss, she searched for support, understanding, and a community that truly knew what it meant to lose a child. While compassionate people walked alongside her, the comprehensive support she longed for didn’t exist. That realization became the foundation for her vision.

 

When it came time to name the organization, Reecie knew one thing for certain.“This couldn’t be just Clint’s story,” she says. “I wanted every family who walked through our doors to feel like they had found a home. I wanted to create a place of hope and healing, a platform where every child’s life could be honored, every family’s story could be shared, and every legacy could continue to grow.”

 

Together, Justin and Reecie transformed that vision into reality, creating a place where no family has to navigate the heartbreak of child loss alone.

 

Today, The RescYOU Group has become one of Acadiana’s leading organizations serving bereaved families. This year, it celebrated two extraordinary milestones. Its annual Night Under the Stars Gala raised more than $500,000, making it the most successful fundraising event in the organization’s history. Even more significantly, the organization surpassed $1 million in direct program support, providing hope and healing to families throughout ten parishes in Acadiana.

 

Since opening its doors, The RescYOU Group has served 433 children who have gone too soon and more than 1,150 family members through financial assistance, grief counseling, children’s grief services, coaching, support groups, retreats, and crisis support. Every program reflects the belief that grieving families deserve more than sympathy, they deserve a community that will walk beside them for as long as they need.

 

For Reecie, healing has never been about waiting for time to pass. “It’s not time that heals us,” she says. “It’s what we do with our time that does.”

 

That philosophy has become the heartbeat of The RescYOU Group, not a place where time heals grief, but a place where people help each other and in time healing finds them. In the end, this story is about love.

 

It’s about discovering that even after unimaginable loss, love still needs somewhere to go. It lives on in the hands that give, the hearts that serve, and in a community that has refused to let grieving families walk alone.

 

Together, Acadiana has transformed compassion into more than $1 million of hope and healing. More importantly, it has become a place where grieving families discover they have gained another family, one that remembers, understands, and never lets go.

 

As Reecie Gilmore says, “We’re not the club anyone wants to belong to, but when you find yourself here, we’re the arms you’ll want to fall into.”

 

With every dollar given, every event attended, and every life touched, this community has proven a simple but powerful truth: When heartbreak belongs to one family, healing belongs to us all.

 

337.534.4446   221 Rue De Jean Ste. 136, Lafayette     https://www.therescyougroup.org/