Alum Jon Reider helps children cope with the same loss that shaped him

The defining event of Jon Reider’s life happened before he was even old enough to read. When he was three years old, Reider’s mother, Myra, died of complications from childbirth.

“That stayed with me and shaped everything I did throughout my life,” Reider, MBA 81, says. “I always knew that the most important thing for me was to help children who had suffered the same trauma that I had suffered.”

Throughout his studies at Concordia and decades-long career in the financial-services industry, Reider always knew that at some point, he would follow his dream to support children who had lost a loved one. Nine years ago, he made the pivot to working as a financial consultant, launching Myra’s Kids Foundation a year later.

Dealing with childhood grief wasn’t a priority in the 1960s, Reider recalls, and families often hoped children would simply forget. Through his own healing journey, Reider recognized that ignoring grief, especially in children, doesn’t work. He set out to create a space for children to grieve and heal together.

‘It’s a beautiful thing’

With no professional background in psychology or social work, Reider teamed up with grief expert Corrie Sirota, who became the clinical director of the Myra’s Kids. The two of them built the foundation from the ground up. In their first year, they hosted a three-day weekend grief camp for 25 children. The impact was profound.

“A mother wrote to us after camp, saying it was the first time she saw her children smile since their dad had died,” Reider says.

Eight years later, the foundation has provided non-denominational, free-of-charge support to more than 350 children with monthly support groups, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day parties, and more. Myra’s Kids Foundation also runs three camps: a one-day family camp at John Abbott College, a three-day sleepaway camp for younger teens and children, and a four-day sleepaway leadership camp for older teens. Programs are run by bereavement counselors and trained volunteers, many of whom were once children in the program.

“All you need to do is bring children together who have faced the same trauma, and immediately there’s a connection,” Reider says. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

Reider shares a profound connection to the children he supports through Myra's Kids Foundation, rooted in their shared experience of loss.

“When they talk about their loved ones or share their stories, it feels like I’m back in those moments myself, but now I’m able to be there for them in a way I wish someone could have been for me.”

From finance to facilitating healing

Though a far cry from his work at Myra’s Kids Foundation, Reider’s time at the John Molson School of Business set him on a path towards a distinguished career in financial services.

“I was very fortunate to be accepted to the Concordia MBA program,” Reider says. “I really saw it as my pathway to a career — and it was.”

He credits his time at Concordia with helping him get his first job as an analyst for CP Rail in the train car department. From there, he moved into the financial-services industry, becoming an investment analyst at Lévesque-Beaubien, which became National Bank Financial. Reider’s career as a financial analyst in the stock market spanned more than 30 years, eventually leading him to become the first anglophone senior vice-president at Desjardins Securities.

Throughout this time, Reider would give back to the community by volunteering. His dream of helping bereaved children stayed with him.

“I didn’t know how or when I would be able to pursue this vision, but I knew at some point in time, I would,” he says. 

Honouring Children’s Grief Awareness Month

Children’s Grief Awareness Month takes place every November, with the third Thursday of the month being marked as Children’s Grief Awareness Day. In 2023, Myra’s Kids Foundation arranged to have La Grande Roue de Montréal lit up in blue, the colour of children’s grief, on that day. The families all rode the ferris wheel and had a pizza party afterwards.

“It was magical,” Reider says. “The kids loved it.”

This year, the foundation continues the tradition, and a documentary film about the older teen campers, titled The Missing Piece: The Reality of Grief, premiered on November 1 at Westmount High School to raise awareness.

Reider hopes to expand the foundation, providing longer camps and more services and programming for bereaved families.

“It’s been an absolute dream come true to help so many families and to immediately see the impact on these kids.”