A father and son smile as they enjoy a day at London Zoo, organised my Momentum Echoes.

Families gathered in the zoo’s Community Space to enjoy a creative craft activity, making postcards decorated with fingerprint animals. The beautifully bright creations included koalas, bears, flamingos, elephants, jellyfish and toucans and the paintings were something special to take home at the end of the day.

Emma Whitbread, Community Access Programme Lead, gave families an introduction to some of the zoo’s must-see animals, including the recently born golden lion tamarin triplets, helping them plan their adventure before setting off around the zoo where they got the chance to meet some of the 8,000+ animals, from tiny leafcutter ants to giant silverback gorilla.

Talking about the day, Charlotte from our Momentum Echoes team said: “Our Echoes events offer families the chance to spend time together in a supportive environment with others who have also sadly experienced the death of a child. Through activities, conversations and simply being together, parents and siblings can build friendships and create new memories. It was great to see so many families there and the excitement from all the children was wonderful – I loved hearing them talk enthusiastically about the animals they were most looking forward to seeing.”

One family who attended said: “Thank you for the wonderful day at London Zoo. Our daughter had a great time seeing all the animals and she enjoyed the finger printing activity at the start. She has been talking non-stop about her trip!”

 Another family added: “Thank you so much for a wonderful day. Everyone had a wonderful time.”

A big thank you to London Zoo’s Community Access Scheme for kindly donating the tickets, to Emma Whitbread for sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm, and to Rob for kindly volunteering his time to help make the day such a success.

July marks Bereaved Parents Awareness Month. Throughout the month, we are holding events for parents including a trip on our riverboat and a walk and talk at Wakehurst. If you are a Momentum Echoes family, you can find out more about these events here:  Echoes Family Events – Momentum Children’s Charity