The money will go toward the continued operation of the program, Zabele said. Proceeds from the annual Popcorn Day with the Phillies every April also go toward the program.
The David Bradley Foundation is fulfilling a mission that her son would wholeheartedly endorse, said Bradley's mother, Doris Bradley-Plager, who lives in Worcester.
"David always wanted to help children who were grieving, because he had been there," Bradley-Plager said.
Bradley's father, W. Douglas Bradley, died of cancer in 1983. In the final stages of his illness, the family turned to Wissahickon Hospice for assistance, Bradley-Plager said.
"They were incredible with the amount of support they gave us," she said. "Whatever you needed, they orchestrated everything."
Bradley-Plager later became a volunteer with the hospice, she said. When her son's friends were trying to come up with a beneficiary for their fund, she suggested seeding a hospice program.
The children's bereavement program is designed to help children up to age 18 cope with the terminal illness of a family member before and after a death, Zabele said.
Children often grieve differently from adults, and special care may be required to assist them, she said. For instance, children may not be able to verbalize feelings and may show emotions through unusual behavior.
And because they still have most of their life experiences ahead of them, Zabele said, their grief is "revisited along the way" at significant milestones such as graduations, weddings and the births of their own children.
In home visits, Zabele, who works part time, engages children in conversation, drawing and other play activities to help them cope. Last summer, she began working with the children of Janet Welsko, a Spring City resident.
