As Ridgewood-based Forget Me Not Foundation grows, it touches more lives

But Emma — who was born still on Aug. 11, 2009 — has nonetheless touched many lives. And she will never be forgotten.MITSU YASUKAWA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The foundation supplies support and items such as a memory box, below, for grieving parents.

In addition to Melissa and Dave Barry’s commitment to celebrating their daughter’s birthday every year, the Ridgewood couple started the non-profit Forget Me Not Foundation in Emma’s memory. Its mission is to support families who have lost babies during pregnancy, childbirth or shortly after birth, and to help educate the medical community about the emotional needs of families who suffer these losses.

The Barrys have achieved much on both fronts in the four years since their foundation’s inaugural “An Evening to Remember” fundraiser.

“We just had this idea that we wanted to help people who went through a similar experience as us, losing a pregnancy or a newborn baby, but we didn’t really have any specific goals. We just knew we wanted to help people,” Melissa Barry says of that first benefit. “So, we had the fundraiser and it was a great success, and we made some money, and we were like, ‘OK, so now what do we do?’ We met with some people at Hackensack [University Medical Center] and had some conversations and figured out some ways to best help these families. And what we found was that a lot of hospitals don’t have the bereavement materials that they need.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/family/as-the-forget-me-not-foundation-grows-it-touches-more-lives-1.1065070#sthash.AcEIEv1K.dpuf