Inspired to Strength in Boston

Photo of the Field of Cradles/"I Gave You Words" display at the first annual Boston Promise Walk for Preeclampsia in July 2011.

Strength.

Courage.

Self empowerment.

This is the message that first time coordinator Stacy Vallely hopes participants will come away with from the second annual Boston Promise Walk for Preeclampsia.

Stacy was a participant in last year’s Promise Walk for Preeclampsia after her son spent 86 days in the NICU when Stacy developed preeclampsia at 28 weeks.  He was just 2 lbs and 2 oz at birth.  Stacy was moved by the other survivors she heard from that day, the knowledge she gained from an expert at the event and touched by the beauty of the butterfly release.

This year, as coordinator, she hopes the activities and tone of the day are uplifting and inspire others to take on the fight against preeclampsia.  Events at the May 6th Boston Promise Walk include speakers, a moment to remember those lost and survivors, children’s games led by the Life is Good Playmakers, a raffle, face painting and more!

To register for the walk, which is at Castle Island Park, go to www.promisewalk.org/boston.  Registration is $20 for adults and $10 for children.  Registration the day of the walk increases to $25 for adults.  For more information, contact Stacy Vallely at stacy.vallely@gmail.com.

Bostonians to Walk Among A “Field of Cradles”

It’s a poignant reminder to all that pass by, a grassy field of empty cradles, each representing a baby that has lost his or her life to preeclampsia. Inside each cradle lies a blanket with a poem on it written to and for that child. Gentle lullabies play in the background.

This is the scene that walkers at the first Boston Promise Walk for Preeclampsia will experience on July 24, 2011 at Castle Island Park. The exhibit is all the vision of writer, exhibit organizer and walk coordinator Susannah Pabot. With this traveling public exhibit, Susannah hopes to increase awareness of preeclampsia and its symptoms and raise money to support the Preeclampsia Foundation and their efforts.

Susannah, herself a two-times survivor of severe preeclampsia, worked with families from across the country to hear their stories, hopes, grief and undying love for the babies they lost to this condition in developing the final pieces of her project. The poems written for and to each baby remembered in the exhibit were created from the language shared by their parents and grandparents. 

The cradles were designed for the exhibit by RISD furniture design graduate Rebecca Lee, and the blankets displayed in the cradles were individually designed and knitted by RISD textile art students Alyssa Fu and Eliza Squibb.  The colors used were chosen by the families of the babies.   

The exhibit’s sound environment was composed by Brown/RISD student Ling Zhou and includes recordings of the poems and three original songs written and sung for the exhibit by the award-winning lullaby singer Amy Robbins-Wilson. Inspired by her involvement in the exhibit, Amy has created an album dedicated to all parents who have lost a baby (www.angelbabylullabies.com). She will be singing from this and her other albums at the Boston Promise Walk.

Preeclampsia survivor Diane Stern, co-anchor of the WBZ Afternoon news will emcee the event, and one of the mothers who took part in the exhibit will speak of her personal experiences with the disease.  Just announced, Dr. Ananth Karumanchi of the Karumanchi Laboratory, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School will be attending the walk with members of his laboratory and will be speaking.  The walk with close with a butterfly release to honor the memory of all mothers and babies lost to preeclampsia.

For more information about the exhibit, you can go to www.fieldofcradles.org. To register or donate to the Boston Promise Walk culminating at the Field of Cradles exhibit, visit
http://www.promisewalk.org/pfpw/fundevent.asp?nnaffundid=34
.