10.15 Project relay honors pregnancy and infant loss statewide
Jamestown families who have faced miscarriage or infant death will have a statewide moment of remembrance next fall, when 12 runners carry those stories more than 400 miles across North Dakota.
Jamestown and Stutsman County families who have lived through pregnancy or infant loss will again have a place in a statewide act of remembrance when The 10.15 Project runs across North Dakota Oct. 15-18, 2026. The four-day relay will cover more than 400 miles and use endurance, conversation and community support to honor babies lost too soon.
The project says 12 runners will take part, carrying stories of love, loss and resilience from town to town. Its mission is to make pregnancy and infant loss more visible while supporting grieving families and the organizations that walk beside them. Co-founders Jen Burgard, Cassie Erickson, Michael Greenwood, MD, and Jackie Hinrichs shaped the effort from their own lived experience.
Burgard said the relay grows from the kind of work she has done through Haven since 2017, giving people a way to do something public and meaningful around a loss that is often kept private. That public recognition matters in places like Jamestown, where grief after miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death can linger quietly in churches, hospitals and living rooms long after the formal goodbyes end.
North Dakota has already set aside official time for that remembrance. Governor Doug Burgum has proclaimed October as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Month and Oct. 15 as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. North Dakota Health and Human Services says about 59 pregnancies in the state end in miscarriage or stillbirth after 20 weeks of pregnancy each year, and a 2025 state proclamation cited 55 infant deaths in North Dakota in 2024.
The same proclamation said roughly 1 million pregnancies in the United States end each year in miscarriage, stillbirth, newborn death or sudden unexplained infant death syndrome, a toll that reaches far beyond any single county line. On Oct. 15, families can join the International Wave of Light by lighting a candle at 7 p.m. local time in memory of babies gone too soon, turning a private grief into a shared moment of support.
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