Lindsay Schambach never envisioned a career in grief support. The former Newark teacher and charter school principal thought her life’s purpose was firmly planted in education. But when her husband, Mike Schambach—Montclair State’s head men’s lacrosse coach and a Bridgewater native—passed away from stage four colon cancer in 2018, everything changed.
Left widowed at 35 with two young children, Schambach was thrust into a world she hadn’t prepared for. “I didn’t know another soul who had gone through what we had,” she recalls. That’s when someone mentioned Imagine, a New Jersey-based grief support center offering free services to families coping with loss.
Schambach and her son began attending Imagine sessions every other week. “It was life-changing,” she shares. “Grieving people need grieving people.” That experience, she says, not only helped her survive—but transformed her calling. In 2021, she became Imagine’s Executive Director, now leading the very organization that helped save her family.
Imagine supports families grieving the death of a loved one, regardless of the cause or the relationship. “Whether it’s a parent, sibling, grandparent, or best friend,” Schambach explains, “if someone is grieving, they are welcome at Imagine.” The organization operates out of Mountainside and Newark, with services extending across the state.
A former educator, Schambach saw the glaring gap in how schools respond to grief. Under her leadership, Imagine built a training and education department to help schools become grief-informed—ensuring students aren’t overlooked during a time of profound emotional need.
Children, Schambach emphasized, are often the “forgotten mourners.” Adults might wrongly assume that young age minimizes loss. But Schambach points out what people in the field have long known to be true, “If you’re old enough to love someone, you’re old enough to grieve them.” Grief is lifelong, she adds. “You miss your dad at three, but when you turn six and there’s a daddy-daughter dance, it hits you all over again.”
Imagine’s grief model embraces that longevity. Some children stay in support groups for years, processing their grief as they grow. Schambach's own son, for example, eventually realized he had lived longer without his father than with him. “That’s a young time in life to face something so big.”
Imagine’s free programming is sustained by generous donors and community support. Local efforts include Goals for Imagine, a fundraising campaign started by Bridgewater Lacrosse program and led by high schooler Brody Nussman. This initiative supported by the lacrosse families—pledging money for each goal scored during the season — has grown to include neighboring towns like Hillsborough and Somerville, supported by coaches that grew up playing with Schambach's late husband, Mike Schambach, and continuing the culture of community that Bridgewater has long supported.
In addition to youth support, Imagine is expanding its offerings with women’s and men’s retreats and planning a unique family weekend designed for healing through creating new memories. They’ve also created New Jersey’s first grief and loss curriculum for high schoolers, a state initiative Imagine helped champion, making NJ the first state in the country to mandate grief education as part of a high school education.
“We always say: you can’t heal grief with time alone,” Schambach notes. “It’s what you do with that time that matters.”
Through Imagine, Schambach carries on her husband’s legacy of kindness, service, and community—offering others the same compassionate support that helped her family rebuild. Her mission is simple, yet profound: no grieving child or parent should have to walk alone.
To learn more about Imagine or to support its mission, visit imaginenj.org.