Mayor Mark Nexsen proclaims Sunday, December 11, 2016, as National Children’s Memorial Day for Open Arms and Empty Hearts. Open Arms and Empty Hearts is a support group that provides empathy and understanding in the healing process for a family that is coping with and recovering from the loss of a young child, teenager, young adult, and adult child. Open Arms for Empty Hearts observes National Children’s Memorial Day every year along with others around the world, by lighting candles at 7 p.m. in their corresponding time zones. As candles burn down in one time zone, they are lighted in the next, creating a 24-hour wave of light that encircles the globe. Mayor Nexsen urges all citizens both in public ceremonies and in private thoughts and prayers to honor the children who have lived and died, and who, even in death, continue to matter.