Omaha families remember their lost babies during annual 5k event

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Saturday, families in Omaha remembered their babies lost during pregnancy or infancy.

The eighth annual HEALs to the Pavement 5k event happened today at Turner Park in Midtown Crossing.

It was put on by The Collective for Hope, a non-profit in Omaha. HEALing Embrace is part of the collective that focuses on pregnancy and infant loss.

The co-founders of HEALing Embrace banded together through the difficult shared experience of the loss of a baby.

Between the two of them, they lost seven babies.

“It was following the loss of my third child…my third child Silas was 42 weeks,” I went to have him, and he died during delivery and I just felt stunned,” said Shawna Hoffman, co-founder of the HEALing Embrace.

Shawna experienced two miscarriages before the loss of her son Silas.

“Following his loss, I was given a whole packet of information. Here’s support groups. Here’s numbers you can call for support. Here’s information of community resources. And I wasn’t given that information following my first two losses, and I was very lost as to why.”

“So we set out to start this where we could create a community and a safe space to talk about our children that the rest of the world was telling, us or made us feel like, we couldn’t talk about them,” said Hoffman.

One of those families that benefited from this Collective for Hope community are the Evans. In 2019 they lost twin boys. Saturday they remembered their sons.

“We are out here, we lost our twins Jude and Everett in 2019 so we just come out for the support for other mamas, dads, brothers and sister that had to go through a loss. It just makes our heart feel better remembering our boys and telling their story,” said Laura Evans.

Other families gathered to enjoy a memorial with their children’s names, crafts so kids can remember their siblings, and music as families lapped Turner Park in memory of their babies.

Copyright 2022 WOWT. All rights reserved.