So, where does the name GOOD GRiEF come from?

So, where does the name GOOD GRiEF come from?

Hi, my name is Sam Hendel and I’m the Founder of GOOD GRiEF! This is the most common question I get asked about GG, so if you’re curious, here’s how GOOD GRiEF and this incredible community came to be.

In February of 2022 my mom, Rita, was diagnosed with Small Cell Lung Cancer. She passed just 9 months after her diagnosis and as you can imagine, the grief from that loss was all-consuming. In the same year, I went through a really tough breakup, which led me to feel even more alone than ever. So, in order to pull myself out of the trenches (because therapy was helping but simply not enough), I decided I needed to put my mind toward a big, big goal. So, I signed up to run the Austin Marathon in honor of my mom and to raise money for LUNGevity; a non-profit that funds lung cancer research.

Over the course of 20 weeks I gave everything I had to this race - countless 5am wakeup calls, long runs on Saturday mornings, saying no to parties and late nights, and meeting an entirely new community of people who inspired me, pushed me, and showed me I was capable of way more than I thought possible.

To my surprise, I fell in love with running, but more importantly I was so damn proud of the person I had become and the people I was surrounding myself with. People who had similar stories to me (grief, breakups, job losses, etc) and we’re also using the power of movement and community to better themselves and show up for the people they cared about.

In May of 2024 (when run clubs were at their peak) my friend, Carl, showed me a song called Good Grief by Roman Collins and immediately I knew that this was it. A week later, I gathered about 20 friends for the first ever GOOD GRiEF run club to help people find the good in grief through movement and community. Since May of 2024 we’ve been growing weekly, creating a space for people to talk about their grief, meet likeminded people, and have fun in the process. It’s been my proudest accomplishment to date, and I can’t wait to watch this community grow. 💛