Day 14: Community

Today’s photo challenge was to post a photo of a community event you have attended.  Tomorrow will be my first October 15^th since we lost Avery and I plan on attending a luminary and lantern ceremony at the beach.  I have not attended any official “baby loss” events to date.  However, a month after Avery passed, our friends put together a golf tournament in her honor.  Being that our loss was still so new and we didn’t have (and still don’t have) the findings from her autopsy, we decided to raise money to build a playground at our church.  The playground will be dedicated to Avery and be called “Avery’s Place.”
The tournament, which was put together in less than 3 weeks, was amazing.  The community outpouring was overwhelming.  We had 80 golfers at the event and many more attend just to be there.  Food was donated by our local bar-b-que restaurant as well as so many prizes for a raffle.  The day was incredible.  There were so many there to not only support us, but to remember Avery.  In total we raised over $8,000 for Avery’s Place and hope to have the playground complete by the end of the year.

We live in a small town where to do anything “fun” you normally have to drive to a bigger community.  We use to joke about living were we live and how boring it is.  But after experiencing what we have over the last 4 months, I love this community.  There have been so many people here to support us; I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.  We plan to hold a golf tournament every year now in October.  I hope to bring more awareness to October being Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.

Tomorrow, I will attend my first official “baby loss” event.  My husband and I are attending with friends who too are a part of this baby loss community.  A community unlike our town, that I still wish I wasn’t a part of but one that I have also found support and love in.