Making a Difference: Delaware Chapter of The TEARS Foundation

At RADfertility, we understand that infertility can be a very isolating disease to face. It is important to know you are not alone. The purpose of the Making a Difference series is to highlight the dedicated organizations and individuals in the community available to help you on your journey.

Our patient community is filled with extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. Members of a local pregnancy loss support group joined together with the mission of helping others going through similar tragedies while also honoring the life of their child. A non-profit organization was born, the Delaware Chapter of The TEARS Foundation.

We had the opportunity to connect with the organization’s Committee to learn more about their mission, the Delaware Rock & Walk for Babies event, and how they are making a difference.

What is the mission of The TEARS Foundation?

The TEARS Foundation seeks to compassionately lift a financial burden from families who have lost a baby by providing funds to assist with the cost of burial or cremation services. We believe that every baby’s life deserves to be honored and memorialized in accordance with the grieving parents’ wishes and are committed to helping bereaved parents with this experience.

When was the Delaware Chapter founded and what inspired the Committee to bring this resource to the First State?

After experiencing the loss of our babies and meeting in a bereavement support group, several Delaware parents decided we wanted to turn our heartache into healing. We all had different experiences in our losses, but what drew us to one another was not only our desire to honor the lives of our babies, but also to show others who might suffer the same loss in the future the same kindness we had been shown by charitable donations received from the community. This mission of “paying it forward” and helping other families with the financial burden that no parent ever expects to encounter planted the seed for what soon would become something greater than us. On a leap of faith and by divine intervention, our group of parents were led to The TEARS Foundation who shares the same mission and vision we had hoped to fulfill. The TEARS Foundation has been a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization for 15 years in many states across the country, and has even begun to serve other countries as well, but has never had a chapter in Delaware. This was the opportunity we had dreamed of and seamlessly, just a few months later in November of 2017, the Delaware Chapter of The TEARS Foundation was founded.

What are some of the resources that the Foundation provides?

The TEARS Foundation seeks to provide families with funeral financial assistance, emotional support gatherings, memory boxes, peer companions, gifts of encouragement and support, and compassionate advocacy for the community of bereaved families; a community that is all too often silently unnoticed.

The TEARS Foundation frequently uses the symbol of the butterfly, is there a meaning behind this?

In the words of our founder, Sarah Slack, “For TEARS, the butterfly is a symbol of hope. It’s a transformation, and the beauty that can come through something so painful as child loss. There’s a time of darkness, and a time when things don’t look good at all. Such as when the transformation is occurring with a caterpillar into a butterfly. Ultimately with healing and a safe place to mourn, we transform into a new beautiful version of ourselves. Never the same, but with new hope and beauty.”

You had an amazing turnout for the first and second Annual Delaware Rock & Walk! The third annual event is set for October 25th and will be virtual with a swag bag pick-up at Caravel Academy. Can you tell us more about this year’s event?

We are very excited about this year’s Rock & Walk! Although it will be virtual for the health and safety of our participants, it will be extra special this year having it in October as this is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month. We look forward to honoring and celebrating all of the babies gone too soon with our amazing community of bereaved families and the people who love them. The past two years it has been so beautiful to see the community come together in support of one another, and it is such an honor to be a part of it. On this day, we will line the track at Caravel Academy with butterflies with the babies’ names and host a virtual ceremony in which we will read all of their names. In order to follow social distancing, teams will be invited to walk the track for the Hope lap during an assigned time slot. They will be able to have a picture taken by our photographer with their baby’s(ies’) butterfly if they would like, and take their butterfly home with them if they so choose. There will be a feeling of camaraderie and expressions of hope.

What do you hope to accomplish in 2020 with The TEARS Foundation?

Although 2020 has been a bit of a different year for everyone, our mission remains the same. We want the community to know that there is compassionate support available for families who have experienced pregnancy and infant loss, and we are here for them during their grief journey. This experience can often feel very isolating, and in the current times even more so. The support that we are able to offer may look a little different in presentation during this time, but we hope to still be a supportive presence to the community of bereaved families in Delaware and surrounding areas.

What advice do you have for families that are grieving?

Grief is the most unpredictable force you will ever unwillingly come into contact with. It can tear you down, but it can also ignite a desire within you to make a difference in the world, or even give you a new perspective. Trust the process and know that while there is no reaching the “finish line” in this process, you will grow stronger over time. Allow grief to come as it may, in all of it’s many unrecognizable forms. Acknowledge it. Label it if you can. And always, always remember you are not alone. Through all of the many ups and downs that you will encounter, never forget to speak your baby’s(ies’) name(s), honor their precious life by telling their story, and carry the gift of their memory with you always.

Is there anything we didn’t mention that you feel is important for others to know about your organization?
We are a growing organization, so we humbly welcome anyone who would like to be a part of our team! If you are interested in becoming a volunTEAR, please email us at delawarechapter@thetearsfoundation.org or find us on Facebook by searching “Delaware Chapter of The TEARS Foundation” and send us a message. We are so grateful for the outpouring of kindness we have already experienced in such a short time and are honored to be able to serve the community in the great state of Delaware.

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For more information, visit The Delaware Chapter of The TEARS Foundation website: http://thetearsfoundation.org/delaware/