Girl Scouts Troop 893 hand-delivered 30 Sarah’s Heart Comfort Boxes – filled with handwritten letters, journals and stuffed animals – to North Central Baptist Hospital on Friday afternoon. The recipients: Grieving parents who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant loss at the hospital.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 24,000 babies are stillborn every year, and about the same number of infants die within their first year of life.
Vivian Graham, with the non-profit Sarah’s Hearts, said she experienced this pain after delivering her son at North Central Baptist Hospital.
“I think the biggest thing is that when moms have miscarriage, stillbirths (or) early infant death, it’s really important to honor and remember their babies—whether it was at six weeks or 41 weeks," Graham said. "Those babies were theirs, and and they still are, and so saying their names and talking about them (and) remembering them I think is really important.”
The four girl scouts fundraised through lemonade stand and cookie sales.
One of them, Teresa Enriquez, said this project hits home for them because her mom and another one of the girls’ moms lost a child and received comfort boxes at the time of their loss.
“I would like to help these people because maybe it was their first child that they lost, and they don’t know what it feels like,” Enriquez said. "And maybe they can get well with these boxes that we made for them.”
Each scout spent over 20 hours planning and executing the fundraising to donate 30 boxes. 15 more, the troop says, will be coming later this year.