Dear friends, family, and members of the Northeast Louisiana Community,

As founders of the local Non-Profits, I Will Carry You, the Zoey Renee Project, and Sam’s Love, we are writing in hopes that you will support The Second Annual Angel’s Gala. By sponsoring this event, you will be donating towards the new goal of $20,000 which will provide specialized bereavement training courses to medical professionals at the following Northern Louisiana hospitals: St Francis Medical Center, Morehouse General Hospital, Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport- Monroe Medical Center, and Willis Knighton South in Shreveport. This year we are excited to announce we plan to add Northeast Louisiana’s largest women’s health provider, The Woman’s Clinic.

Since our donation of Caring Cradles this past year, we learned the next greatest need in our community is to provide our local medical professionals with the training they need to provide quality care to families experiencing loss. Most medical professionals receive little to no education or formal training in bereavement care, as it pertains to pregnancy and infant loss, and as a result, they are often placed in situations they are uncomfortable with. This not only increases stress for the medical professional, but it also negatively impacts the family’s already painful hospital or clinic experience.

A team of medical professionals and grief specialists from Rachel’s Gift, a nonprofit based in Atlanta, will provide each of our local hospitals with a comprehensive bereavement training course. The courses will be available to all medical professionals and support staff working in Emergency Medicine, Labor and Delivery, Pediatrics, and the Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care settings. This highly specialized training will give our medical professionals the tools they need to confidently care for families experiencing pregnancy and infant loss in many different situations.

Having personally experienced the loss of our children, Eva, Zoey, and Sam, we know the impact bereavement care has on the family, not only during the loss, but also throughout the grieving and healing journeys that follow. Quality bereavement care in the hospital and clinic settings should not be a privilege given to some, or something that happens by chance, but rather a right given to all. We know this bereavement training is needed and will impact many lives in our community for years to come.

The Second Annual Angel’s Gala will be held on September 17th 2022 at Bayou Pointe on the campus of ULM in Monroe, Louisiana. This formal black-tie event will feature cocktails, entertainment from special guest Emcees Friday & Ashley Ellis, live music by the Main Event Band, a seated dinner catered by Thurmon’s Food Factory, and both live and silent auctions. You will also hear a heartfelt message from this year’s spotlight family, Danny and Amber Boyd, as well as a message from Jackie Tichenor, a local Labor and Delivery Nurse with a special passion for caring for families experiencing pregnancy & infant loss.

The sponsorship deadline is August 16th, 2022. We hope that we can count on your support to make this year’s event the best one yet!

Sincerely,

The Gonzales, Salters, and Honaker Families,
Parents of Eva Katherine, Zoey Renee, and Samuel Beckett