Cultivating Hope: A Successful First Fundraiser for Healing Grace

Director/Curator Ellen Adams, left, and Programs Coordinator Leni Vradelis welcome attendees at the Oct. 15 Cultivating Hope fundraiser for Healing Grace at The Alice T. Miner Museum.

October 15 is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day and so a very fitting date to host a fundraiser for an organization that supports families who have suffered the death of an infant during pregnancy and within the first year of life. Cultivating Hope: A Fundraiser to Benefit Healing Grace was held at The Alice T. Miner Museum on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. The event brought in $1550 for Healing Grace. It was the start of what we hope will be a lasting partnership. 

On March 16, 1902, Alice and William Miner welcomed a long-awaited child. Sadly, William Henry Miner Jr. died two weeks later. The partnership between The Alice T. Miner Museum, Miner Institute, and Healing Grace Center for Hope & Healing is so meaningful. Healing Grace's mission is to provide support, guidance, love, and community to families that have suffered the death of an infant at any stage of pregnancy and within the first year of life. Healing Grace helps families to cultivate hope and provides support for the healing journey after loss with services such as professional and peer support, birth planning, funeral planning support, comfort boxes and other products to support maternal grief. Alice Miner undoubtedly had no access to services similar to those offered by Healing Grace. It seems so fitting that Alice Miner's beloved museum host a fundraising event for an organization that would have meant so much to the Miners and fits so well into their legacy of improving life and building community in the North Country. 

Sarah Munn Wojtaszek is the founder and executive director of Healing Grace. Her motivation is deeply personal. In 2008, during her 20-week ultrasound for her first child, she and her husband learned that their baby had anencephaly, a fatal neural tube defect. Following this devastating news, Sarah and her husband Keith were put in touch with a perinatal hospice group in Kansas City where they were living that helped guide them through their grief. After returning to the North Country in 2010, they were shocked to learn that there were no organizations in the North Country to support families of infant loss. Sarah founded Healing Grace in 2020 and is making a tremendous impact for North Country families. 

To learn more about Healing Grace or to make a donation, visit healinggraceph.org

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