Friday evening in downtown Miami, a throng of community members – each person holding a glowing candle in memory of a lost loved one – walked from Veterans Memorial Park to the historic YMCA building and back.

The occasion was Globe-Miami’s first “Walk to Remember” event, hosted by  The Compassionate Friends of the Copper Corridor and the Sara K Foundation. “Whether you are walking to commemorate a child, friend or someone close to your heart, this walk offers a moment of peace, reflection, and community support,”  read a description on the event’s Facebook page. “Let’s come together and support each other in our grief.”

As the candles were lit and given to participants, each person who carried a candle named aloud the person in whose honor they would be walking that night.

Monica Perez, of The Compassionate Friends of the Copper Corridor, said the idea for “Walk to Remember” grew out of a monthly grief support group the non-profit organization hosts at the Globe-Miami Chamber of Commerce. Thst monthly group, she said, is dedicated to parents, grandparents and siblings who have lost a loved one.

“The Sara K Foundation actually provided the startup funding for The Compassionate Friends so that we could get it started here in the Globe-Miami area,” said Sara K Foundation President and co-founder Monica Magoon, who lost her daughter Sara to a fentanyl overdose.

Magoon said The Compassionate Friends, to whom she also belongs, will hold another candlelight vigil December 8 at the Cobre Valley Center for the Arts. That vigil, she added, will be part of a worldwide Compassionate Friends event. “It actually starts in Europe and makes its way over here,” she said.