Ribbon Remembrance Events
The inaugural Baby Loss Awareness Day took place on 15 October 2002, initiated by a small group of parents, including 2 Sands parents, inspired by Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day in the United States. Through the sale of handmade blue and pink ribbon pins they raised several thousand pounds for UK organisations supporting bereaved parents.
Since 2014, an enamel pin was sold in place of handmade ribbon pins and this year, we wanted to do something to raise awareness of baby loss that included reference to the original handmade pink and blue ribbon.
Here’s what you can do to get involved
Identify shop fronts or other community wall spaces to hold your display
Perhaps your local library, doctor’s surgery, hospital or workplace would be happy to host a remembrance wall/tree and display for Baby Loss Awareness Week. Get permission to have your display during 9 – 15 October.
Buy some ribbon
We are still coming up with ideas of how to use ribbon in displays. Just look for some pink and blue ribbon and get creative!
Create your display
You can also download the ribbon and bunting template, print and cut out the ribbons and use them to decorate your display. You could also add in LED candles or tealights to coincide with the Wave of Light on 15th October at 7pm. As there are no naked flames these could be left illuminated all night to increase the impact of the displays.
Encourage your local community to get involved
If the space is accessible to the public you could include a memory tree or wall for people to write a short message on their ribbon before they hang it on the tree or add to your memory wall. The tree could be something as simple as hazel twigs in a pretty vase. For an outdoor space instead of the paper ribbon you could use 30 cm lengths of satin ribbon in pink or blue that could be tied together on a string line for example.
Let us know
Let us know that you’ll be joining the initiative by filling out the form on the events page, here.
If you know of a local yarn bombing or craft group perhaps they would like to get involved too.
Spread the word about your event
Social media is a great way to let people know about your ribbon event, and if you tag your posts and photos with #BLAW we will look out for them and share on the Baby Loss Awareness Week’s Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Even if you don’t have, or don’t want to use, your personal profiles the building that is hosting the display might. Local news websites and radio stations also get a lot of their content from social media channels – particularly Twitter – so do mention them in your post.
You can also let the local media know about your event by sending them a press release. We’ve created this press release template that you can download and customise before sending it to your local media – a quick online search should reveal their contact email.
Events for Baby Loss Awareness Week
