Stay tuned for In Our Range on the Way Next, brought to you by Westgate Nursing Rehabilitation and Assisted Living Center.
Good morning and welcome to In Our Range.
I'm your host, Mike LeBeau.
Our guest this morning is Samantha Schneller, president of the Cradle and Love Foundation based in Ironwood.
Cradled in love is a 501c3 non-profit whose vision is a community where no family experiences pregnancy loss or infant loss alone, and where every child, no matter how briefly they were here, is remembered with dignity, love, and compassion.
The mission statement of Cradle and Love Foundation provides support, remembrance programs, education, resources, and financial assistance to families affected by pregnancy loss, stillbirth, infant loss, and neonatal loss while fostering healing, awareness, and compassionate community support.
Cradle and Love is hosting their fifth annual Walk to Remember on October 10th at Airport Park Pavilion next to the Ironwood Airport.
This event is for parents and family to come together in the journey that they walk and to know that they aren't alone in their grief.
The event begins at 9 a.m.
with check-in, and it will have several events culminating in the walk to remember at 10 a.m.
with a raffle and refreshments to follow.
To learn more about Cradle in Love and see details of the event on October 10th, you can visit their website at CradleInLove.org.
Joining me is Samantha Schneller.
She is the president of Cradled in Love.
She's an Ironwood native who works at Aspirus Ironwood.
She officially founded Cradled in Love this year, which began as the walk to remember in partnership with the Star Legacy Foundation out of Minneapolis.
Good morning, Samantha, and welcome to In Our Range.
Good morning.
Thank you so much for having me today.
I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about Cradled in Love Foundation and share what we're doing in our community.
Yeah, we appreciate you joining us.
So and happy to have you share.
This is something that we should be talking about more.
I think it's important that we talk about these things in a real human way and efforts to sort of stop the stigma.
And as your mission statement says, it's important to let people know that they're not alone in their grief.
It is very human experience, but it is much as we all experience grief.
It's also very lonely and awful feeling.
So thank you for joining us and talking about this this morning.
Yes.
Me and my husband suffered with infertility for about eight or nine years.
And when we finally got pregnant, we were super excited.
And then unfortunately, we lost him at 24 weeks.
And after that happened, we realized there really isn't a lot of resources around the area.
So that is what got me into looking into other organizations and starting this Cradled in Love Foundation.
Yeah, and that began as just creating this event a walk to remember about five years ago correct When you and your husband began this where did you first find support in order to promote this event?
And how did it get going?
We did some research online and found star legacy foundation out of Minneapolis and they have weekly support groups for moms dads grandparents Anyone you can think of and just got connections through them
They were very supportive, had a lot of resources, and they said if we would like to host an event that would be something they'd be willing to help with.
So Star Legacy Foundation all the way down in Minneapolis were there to be supportive of you up here on the range to get something going here.
Yes.
That's incredible that they offered that kind of support from far away and now you're on the fifth one.
Yes.
And recently you officially became a 501 C3.
with your mission that I read earlier.
Correct.
And so what are the hopes moving forward for Cradle of Love?
We just want everyone to know that no matter how brief or early your loss was, they still matter and no one is alone.
It's a very lonely journey.
I feel like people don't talk about it enough and we would be happy for people to come forward and know that they can say whatever they need to say even if it's brief or super long.
Star Legacy is still helping with resources.
They have pamphlets and stuff, and we are using them as a resource for grief counseling and things like that, as we don't have that set up yet through our foundation.
Yeah, you're just getting started and so star legacy still seems to be happy to provide you support as you get going and thinking about programs and Information and how people can reach out here locally to find support if they're battling with the grief from loss
like
this Which is you know, even people who do understand grief or have experienced the death of a loved one This seems to be a special situation that even for many people
who do understand grief sometimes you seem to not get the kind of empathy or sympathy that other people get when they experience loss and that can just compound the grief and cause a person to feel even more alone because there's no time limit on grief but for some reason with events like neonatal loss you can have a lot of people trying to push you forward telling you to pick up and move on
you
know so for people who are grieving out there and experiencing
that from their support groups, a lack of true helpfulness.
What kind of things would you like to say to
them?
There is no right or wrong way to grieve.
Whatever works for you is just fine.
What works for you might not work for your husband or wife and vice versa.
I know some people like to journal, some people like to look into the stars.
A lot of people like to read and there's also the religious route as well that people find comfort in.
God and all of that stuff.
So October 10th will be the fifth annual Walkthrough members.
So you've kept this thing going now for five years.
Yes.
It's a lot of great work.
It's hard to put on these events.
How have you seen this event grow in the past five years?
My first event I met a girl from in town in Hurley and she's actually one of our board members now.
So that we have five board members and everyone has met I think
from the walk minus one person.
So we've all kind of met that way, which is nice.
Everyone has different ideas to bring to the walk and to raffles and what we could do in the community.
One of the girls wants to put together a miscarriage package that if someone happens to be going through it, they can contact us via Facebook and let us know because a lot of people don't know what happens.
when you physically go through a miscarriage.
So we just have some supplies and a little bit of reading material for moms to know what to expect.
Yeah, so you're not only there in support of people's grief, but also able to offer practical information about what people can expect that is physically happening with them, maybe issues working with the hospitals where they were receiving care, things like that.
You have a bank of wisdom
of people who've survived this and are dealing with it, which they can provide support and those things for people who are struggling to navigate all of that.
Thank you for doing that.
You're very
welcome.
Yeah, how can people get involved?
How can they reach out to you?
And what sort of needs do you have as you begin this emerging journey as a 501c3?
We do have a Facebook page and Instagram, Craddled in Love Foundation.
We've been trying to be better at posting on social media.
It's a little bit of a challenge.
I guess we are open to learn what the community wants and needs are when people experience loss of a baby or infant.
Yeah, we're just in the beginning stages, so we are willing to look into what people want and think we need in the community to remember all the babies that have been gone too soon.
Yeah, they say 90% of it is just showing up and right now cradle of love has shown up and hopefully through this interview with these events with a walk to remember and As you you know work out the social media posting and reaching out that people will find you there and whoever does Will feel a little bit less alone knowing that there are other people who have experienced what they've experienced and they can get a little bit of help from people who understand the situation
If you'd like, could you discuss or mention some really good memories or moments from previous Walk to Remember events that helped you feel really empowered or excited to keep this going for the community?
The first one we did, I think I started looking into things in just like a few months and I don't remember the exact number, but the turnout we had was
way more than I expected from our small community.
So that was very good.
And it just seems to be growing every year, which is obviously a big positive.
And then raffles and donations have been growing every year.
It's just reaching more businesses, more people know about it, more people talk to other people.
So all the raffle money and donations go back into the nonprofit.
Eventually we would like to do more with financial assistance, if possible.
if there are some people that have a loss and they can't get from point A to point B or if they have to do a cremation or need an urn or any type of like funeral expenses, whatever they need, books to help them get through to get them through the process of grief.
Yeah, those types of issues are some things that people don't often think about, you know, running into financial issues which then can just complicate the grieving.
process as well.
These are wonderful ideas and great services that you're intending to provide.
I really want to thank you for doing that.
So yeah, one thing that I have found from interviewing a lot of organizations in the past year of doing these interviews is that Ironwood is full of a bunch of supportive softies.
We might not always hear about them or see them out there roaming around, but organizations like yours and other ones that I've interviewed
will tell me time and again how much lovely support they get from the community.
And so I'm hoping that with this event and with the organization that you're developing, that these folks will show up and we can create a comforting and supportive environment and group for people who've experienced this loss.
So let's talk a little bit about the upcoming event happening at Airport Park Pavilion up there at the Ironwood Airport on Airport Road.
It begins at 10 a.m.
Yes 10 a.m.
is when the walk starts 9 o'clock is a check-in so if you registered online before or September 27th you will get a t-shirt and then at 9 45 there will be a diaper dash for kids three and under and then 9 55 a kids fun run for kids four and up
And then right before the walk starts, we will have a moment of silence to remember all of the babies.
So what is a diaper
dash?
Just children that are still in diapers, I believe, and then they just go
20
yards and then just let them go for a little race.
And then the kids one is a little bit longer.
That's got to be a little bit chaotic.
Just a little bit.
Yeah.
And then they, you know, some of them start going and then once half of them finish, then the littler kids, you know, then start to start to run once it's all done.
But that's okay.
That sounds adorable.
And so raffle and refreshments to follow after the walk at 10?
Raffle for gift baskets, gift cards, prizes that we get, and then refreshments after.
Yes.
and where will the walk take place?
There is a small track around the soccer field that we'll be walking around so people can walk as many or as little laps as they want and hopefully the weather stays nice for us in October.
Yeah and this event is open to everyone not just people who have experienced loss, folks who would like to show up and offer a comforting presence and support people who have experienced infant or neonatal loss
as
well.
Samantha is there anything else you'd like to add this morning before we get out of here
today?
Yes, I wanted to mention every October 15th There is something called the wave of light and it starts at 7 p.m And families around the world will light a candle for one hour in remembrance of babies gone too soon Whether you have experienced lost yourself or are lighting the candle for someone you love your baby matters Your baby is remembered and your baby is loved
Well, Samantha, thank you so much for joining us this morning on In Our Range.
Really appreciate you being here and the wonderful work that you and your organization do here and hope to have you on again sometime, maybe next year before the next event or if some big events or news happens, feel free to reach out and we'll be back in touch, okay?
All right.
Thank you for having me and for helping us share this message.
We want families who have experienced pregnancy or infant loss to know they are not alone.
and we're grateful for the chance to bring awareness and support to our community.
We're grateful for having you on this morning.
Thank you so much, Samantha.
Thank you.
My guest this morning was Samantha Schneller with Cradled in Love.
The Foundation is hosting their Walk to Remember event on October 10th at the Airport Park Pavilion in Ironwood.
Check-in will begin at 9 a.m.
with the walk beginning at 10 a.m.
and don't miss that diaper dash at 9.15.
As Samantha mentioned earlier, October 15th is the Wave of Light, a global event to honor babies who died during pregnancy, infancy, or early childhood.
Participants will light a candle at 7pm local time for one hour, creating a wave of light that will circle the Earth.
This day supports families who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, ectopic pregnancy, SIDS, or neonatal loss, helping to break the silence surrounding grief.
If you're in need of support or would like to offer support, you can find out more information at CradledInLove.org.
Thank you for joining us this morning on In Our Range.
I'm your host, Mike LeBeau.
We appreciate you listening, and we'll be back next Friday.