OC Walk To Remember Orange County Ca Grief Support for Those Who Have Miscarried or Suffer Infant Loss During Pregnancy

There was an invitation in my inbox this morning, from an old elementary school friend who I haven't seen in years, but with whom I keep up with on Facebook.

Really more of a save the date   request, this three line invitation simply asked that on a certain Saturday morning this coming October, I set aside a few hours of my day to make a small difference in the life or lives of someone else, by taking a walk with my friend and her family to remember and celebrate the all too short time when they had been blessed with the presence of Brooklyn, who is one of God’s tiniest angels.

The walk I was invited to take part in, is the OC Walk To Remember,   an annual event held in Orange County, every October, by the organization OC Walk to Remember, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization   which raises money to offer support to parents who have lost a baby in pregnancy or infancy, and to help support groups and hospitals pay for, among other things, remembrance items for the parents who have just lost their child, educational materials, and referral services for counseling.

I have been one of the lucky ones, I had three healthy pregnancies, which have resulted in three healthy, bright, beautiful children, but others, like my own mother, who between 1955 and 1965 suffered eight miscarriages, and buried her three eldest children, have not been.

The tragedy of losing a child touches almost everyone of us, even if you yourself do not experience a loss of this type, with current estimates being that 1 out of every 5 women in the United States will suffer the heartbreak of a pregnancy or infant loss this year, the odds are that at least one person that you know either has, or will, suffer a miscarriage, stillbirth, or other type of infant loss. With the economy being what it is, and budgets everywhere being stretched paper thin, without the help of organizations like these, the couples who having just lost their child are leaving the hospital with a hole in their hearts and empty arms, would also be going home without so much as a picture or a blanket to remember that baby by.

Don't they deserve that much?

I think that they do.

This is why I have circled the date on my calendar, sent my RSVP, and why I am now writing this hub. letting the world know that at 8am, on Saturday October 15, 2011, at The District  , in Tustin, California, I will be joining my friend and her family for a walk to remember and celebrate the memories of their little Brooklyn, my brother William, and sisters, Elizabeth Renee and Leslie Diane, and all the other angels whose time here was just too short, while helping to raise money and awareness for a very worthy cause

The Basics

• The OC Walk to Remember is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that supports parents who have lost a baby either in pregnancy or infancy
• An annual 5k event and memorial service to which the parents who have lost a baby can gather with their family members, friends, and other grieving parents to honor, remember, and celebrate the life, of their baby no matter how long or how short that life may have been.
• The OC Walk to Remember was founded by two Orange County, California mothers who had recently lost their own babies (Kristyn von Rotz and Lyndsey McLaughlin),
• The OC Walk to Remember is held every October because October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month.
• Each year there is a memorial service to honor and remember the lost babies just prior to the start of the 5k walk, at which the names of the babies is read aloud.
• The very first OC Walk to Remember took place in 2004 and had 100 participants.
• by the time of the 5th annual OC Walk to Remember in 2008 more than 700 participants attended, over 150 names were read during the memorial service, and more than $35,000.00 had been raised
• Throughout the year, the money raised by OC Walk to Remember is given to local hospitals and support groups where it is then used, among other things, to provide parents who have lost their child with keepsakes of their baby that they can take home with them when they leave the hospital, (footprints, blankets, photos, etc.), to donate cameras and photo printers to local hospitals for the purpose of allowing the parents to have pictures of their baby, and to help educate nurses, doctors, social workers and hospital staff members on the importance of how to care for patients who are grieving from the loss of a baby or babies.
• Parents in need who contact OC Walk to Remember on their own are provided with among other things, books and literature on coping with the loss and grief of losing a child, Memory boxes to remember their deceased child by, the names of local and national support groups, the names and contact information for local therapists, and the names and contact information of other parents who have suffered losses such as theirs.
• The OC Walk to Remember 2011 has been scheduled to take place between 8:00 am and 11:00 am, at The District, in Tustin, California, on Saturday October 15, 2011.

"It's important for people to know that their babies are never forgotten. Even though they're not here with us they will forever be memorialize _{- Kristyn von Rotz,(October 2008)}

Kristyn von Rotz, whose son Joseph Thomas von Rotz, was born prematurely, with a brain abnormality, on July 8, 2004 and lived only for a single moment before dying in his mother's arms, met Lyndsey McLaughlin, whose own daughter, Lauren Madison McLaughlin, had passed away on October 01 2003, at a support group for grieving mothers, and founded the OC Walk to Remember in 2004, as a way to memorialize their children and to provide support for grieving parents like themselves.

"as two grieving mothers, we wanted to do something for our children. We wanted to start a walk to help remember our babies so that they will not be forgotten." McLaughlan told report Sean Emery, in 2008, (Orange County Register)

For the parents who have suffered a pregnancy or infant loss, it may be difficult to talk to family members or friends about their loss. To the parents, this baby was a already a reality, but to the friends and family members who never got to see or hold him or her, there may be a sense of disconnection, leaving them unable to fully understand the depths of the parents grief.

"While parents of living babies can throw birthday parties, those who have lost a child only bave gravesites or an urn with ashes. The walk is one day a year wear families can celebrate their child ." _{- Kristyn von Rotz} (_{September 2008)}

The grieving parents are encouraged to invite their loved ones and their friends to share in the memorial service, which precedes the 5 K walk, and during which, each of the baby's names is read. And to then to walk with them in their child's memory, thus providing the parents with a safe place to share their grief and to celebrate the life of their baby.

For the family who has lost a child, there is often a feeling of isolation, or a feeling that they are alone. The Walk to Remember is an excellent opportunity not just for the parents of the lost baby, but for other children in the family, especially the very young, like four year old Elise Rossiter, who said to her mother, "Mommy, all these kids have babies in heaven like we do.

"It made her realize she's not he only one who has a brother or sister in heaven." said Elise's mother, Holly Rossiter, who had brought the little girl along with her in 2008 to honor Elise's baby sister, her second daughter, Aubrielle Faith Rossiter , whom the family lost in 2007. "It made me realize I'm not alone." Rossiter went on to say in the October 14, 2008 Orange County Register article, "Angels in Heaven Remembered in O.C.” (Erika I. RItchie) "We were able to talk about our angels in heaven and not be uncomfortable. Everyone wanted to hear about what you wanted to say about your child."

When Kristyn von Rotz left the hospital after her son's death in July of 2004, she carried with her a memory box wyhich had been given to her by the hospital.

Inside that box were the precious and priceless keepsakes of Joseph's short life; the hat that had been placed on his tiny head after he was born; The blanket that they had wrapped him in after birth; his footprints in ink, and a few photos of him, the only remaining pieces of tangible evidence of his existence. In the October 10, 2008 Orange County Register.com article "IRVINE walk remembers those lost too soon" (Sean Emery), von Rotz credits her discovery that due to budget cuts at the hospitals, parents do not always receive a memory box of their child, or even a photo with being her catalyst for founding OC Walk to Remember;

" I learned that sometimes families do not receive a memorial box or photos because of lack of funding at the hospitals. I vowed to make sure that every parent received a box with memories of their child. That box is the only thing left I have of my son. I often open the box, look at his photo, and smell the blanket that he was wrapped in. It's my way of being with him again, even if just for a moment, and every parent deserves that."

^{Kristyn von Rotz -(October 2008)}

The newly built,  one million square-foot The District at Tustin Legacy,  which has been touted as "Orange County's newest shopping and entertainment destination," will also be the venue for the 2011 OC Walk to Remember.