Naperville SHARE Walk seeks to offer community, hope for bereaved parents
Families who have experienced pregnancy loss or neonatal loss are invited to come together in healing and hope to honor their babies at the 19th annual SHARE Walk to Remember on Saturday, Oct. 12, at the Naperville Riverwalk.
The one-mile walk, hosted by the SHARE perinatal bereavement groups of Edward Hospital and Elmhurst Hospital (part of Endeavor Health), welcomes all who have experienced or been affected by miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal loss.
A remembrance service featuring music, reflection and a reading of babies’ names will begin at 10 a.m. at the Riverwalk Grand Pavilion, 912 Honorary Sindt Memorial Court. The walk will follow at 10:45 a.m.
“We often get the question, ‘Who should attend the walk?’,” said Andrea DiOrio, co-chair of the 2024 SHARE Walk to Remember and mother to Gigi Kresl, who was born and died in 2016, as well as two living children, Penny and Zach. “The answer is anyone and everyone. It truly is for anyone touched by this profound loss, whether their loss was months ago or decades ago.”
Many families who participate wear custom shirts that they have made in honor of the baby or babies they have lost. Before the remembrance service begins, all children in attendance are invited to make special crafts in memory of the siblings they never had a chance to meet. All families who attend the walk receive a white rose as their baby’s or babies’ names are read during the service.
While the Walk to Remember is free to attend, advance registration is encouraged, and all proceeds from donations, “Walk to Remember” T-shirt sales and raffle tickets will go back to the Edward-Elmhurst SHARE program.
In the past, proceeds from the walk helped fund construction of the Wings of Hope Angel Garden near the south entrance of Edward Hospital; this year, proceeds are helping support completion of a perinatal bereavement room at Edward where newly bereaved parents can have time and space apart from other families in the hospital’s mother-baby unit.
The bereavement room, which will be called the Serenity Suite, was the idea of Edward-Elmhurst SHARE parents Dr. Nick Love (himself a physician at Edward) and Melissa Mickey, who approached Edward perinatal bereavement coordinator Susan Villa after the loss of their son Liam.
“They were the driving force of making this happen,” Villa said. “Once we knew this was a possibility, the entire SHARE community became involved in fundraising.”
Most of the furnishings for the room, which began to take physical shape in June, were donated by a SHARE participant’s employer, Villa notes. Walk to Remember co-chairs D’Orio and Rachel Tobin have coordinated efforts to raise funds specifically for the Serenity Suite, and the walk committee has welcomed several new members in the past two years to help bring the Serenity Suite to fruition.
“This has truly been a labor of love for so many in honor of their babies,” Villa said.
Walk-up registration also will be available Oct. 12 starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Riverwalk Grand Pavilion. To register in advance and/or make a donation to the 2024 Edward-Elmhurst SHARE Walk to Remember, visit www.classy.org/event/share-walk-2024/e584428.