On June 20, 2020, Lacey Schoff learned that, at 37 weeks, her unborn son’s heart had stopped beating.

In the wake of coping with their son, Ryker’s, passing, the Schoff family decided to turn their grief into action by helping other families in North Alabama experiencing the same loss, and from there, Ryker’s Rainbow was born.

Schoff said Ryker’s Rainbow, in a sense, first got its start a week after Ryker’s passing when she created a fundraiser to help buy copies for local hospitals of “Mommy, Please Don’t Cry: There Are No Tears in Heaven.” Her mom had given her the book, which explores child loss, after Schoff found the books about grief offered at the hospital lacking.

“When we lost Ryker, we asked for resources and there just wasn’t anything,” said Schoff. “We didn’t know anybody else who had experienced this loss, so we felt really alone. We just we wanted to help take as much burden off of the families experiencing loss.”

While she only asked for $300, she ultimately raised $15,000 in donations. Schoff said she knew then there was a need going unfulfilled and officially launched Ryker’s Rainbow in October 2020.

Since then, the nonprofit organization has donated nearly 700 “blessing boxes” to more than a dozen hospitals in the Huntsville area. In addition to a copy of “Mommy, Please Don’t Cry: There Are No Tears in Heaven,” the boxes include a plate, ornament, earrings and candle that can be customized with their baby’s details; a journal and pen; self-care goods like shower steamers and more. The organization also offers siblings boxes to help children who have lost a brother or sister cope and understand the loss.

“When we left the hospital, we were leaving, you know, with empty arms, with nothing,” Schoff said. “And they had given us a box, but it was pretty empty, and I feel like tangible things for parents to see is really important. That’s kind of what inspired it.”

In addition to the tangible items that Schoff hopes will bring families some comfort, each box also includes an invitation for them to join a private group and attend events hosted by Ryker’s Rainbow. Among those is Five Candles: A Dinner of Remembrance, a free event for grieving parents; meet-ups for mothers who have experienced loss; a Father’s Day gathering and more.

“For the families, I think these events give families a sense of community,” said Schoff. “Loss is so isolating. People don’t really talk about it. It’s uncomfortable, and you don’t know what to say. So just being able to come together, and you don’t have to say anything, everyone just understands, it’s really powerful. We’re just so grateful to have the honor to remember all these babies and children alongside these families, and to be able to say their names with them.”

Ryker’s Rainbow also has several future projects in the works, including a community garden in the heart of Jones Valley that will a feature a Angel of Hope Monument, a walking labyrinth and memory walls where the families can add their child’s name; as well as sponsoring a book cart at the hospitals it partners with that will give grieving mothers a selection of books to read to their babies in the time that they have with them.

Among the books offered on the cart will be “Dear Angel Baby,” a book written by Paige Blankenship, a mother who connected with Schoff and Ryker’s Rainbow following the loss of her son Charles in July 2021 at 29 weeks.

“When I looked back on that experience a year later, I really wish I would have had a book to read to him in the hospital and been able to have that memory and have that with him,” said Blankenship of what inspired her to write the book. “You’re only with your baby for so long. That’s just something I wish I could have done with him. I held a book drive to collect books to donate to hospitals for that purpose, but when I was looking for the type of book I wanted to donate, I couldn’t find a book that fit the mold of what I was wanting. So, I started writing it.”

“One of my most cherished moments with Ryker was reading to him, and Paige’s book is her beautiful way of offering that same gift to others,” Schoff said of “Dear Angel Baby”. “She gave me the honor of reading it before its release, and it was clear we needed to find a way to get this book into the hands of more families.”

Schoff said her hope the various work of Ryker’s Rainbow — whether it be a blessings box, one of its events, the book cart project, the upcoming community garden and so on — will help families who have lost a child know that they are not alone.

“My hope is that these families feel less alone, and that they know that someone out there has walked this journey too and is willing to walk alongside them in theirs.”

To donate or find out more about Ryker’s Rainbow, visit their website.