The 2025 Syrup Stampede took place at Look Memorial Park. This year’s race and pancake breakfast will be on Sunday, April 12.
Photo credit: Mark Kantor
NORTHAMPTON — The Syrup Stampede 5K race and 2K fun run/walk returns on Sunday, April 12, to support the work of Empty Arms Bereavement Support.
The organization serves grieving individuals and families in Massachusetts and nationwide who have lost their babies.
Through cultivating personal connections, building a compassionate community, and fostering professional collaborations, Empty Arms offers grieving parents resources and validation as they navigate the days, weeks and lifetime without their baby. The organization said it supports individuals and families who have lost their babies through miscarriage, stillbirth, early infant death or termination for medical reasons.
The seventh Syrup Stampede will once again be at Look Memorial Park, and the race begins at 10 a.m. Race day bib pick-up begins at 9 a.m.
Runners and walkers can register as teams or individuals and have the option to fundraise as a team. Registration is $35 until April 2, and then the price rises to $40 in the leadup to race day. It is $50 when one registers on the day of the race.
Meanwhile, youth registration is $20 for individuals aged 11-17 and $5 for individuals aged 10 and under. All registered runners and walkers can enjoy the pancake breakfast for free, but pancake-only registration is $12 per person and $5 for kids 10 and under.
Prizes will be awarded in youth and adult categories, including the top fundraising individual. Pancakes will be available starting at 10 a.m.
Empty Arms founder and Executive Director Carol McMurrich told Reminder Publishing the event has always strived to be an exciting outdoor activity to kick off spring, adding the pancake breakfast alongside the race makes for a fun atmosphere in support of the important work of Empty Arms. She said the fundraiser brings in over half of Empty Arms’ annual budget.
“We’re trying to build community and give people a place to feel joy and feel connected, and I think we really do a good job of that at the Syrup Stampede. It’s a really cozy day. People have a good time. It’s good, sweet, sweet syrup, warm carbs and fresh air,” said McMurrich.
McMurrich lost her own baby over 20 years ago, and the experience illustrated the lack of support options for mothers like her when experiencing this tragedy. In looking to find her own grieving process, Empty Arms was eventually born with the idea to fill the existing gaps in resources, peer support and general support for mothers in these situations.
“What we have found to be true is that our health care system and our mental health care system [are] largely unprepared to help people cope through the loss of a baby,” said McMurrich.
McMurrich explained that when anyone loses a significant loved one in their family or life, the work of grief is figuring out how that person stays with you even though they are now gone.
“You don’t just disappear that person from our life when they die, but their existence brings new meaning, and we have a different relationship with them, and that’s what the work of grief is, coming to terms with that new relationship. I think the parents forge a relationship with a baby and an expectation of what that life is going to be together, and then that is abruptly ended,” added McMurrich.
McMurrich said that Empty Arms thoroughly guides parents through the aftermath of this unthinkable tragedy.
“That relationship is already an existing relationship for them,” said McMurrich. “We really sit in the tough stuff with people and let them experience it in a way that’s really hard for others in their life to tolerate. We let them be parents to the children that they’ve lost, which is an opportunity that they don’t have in very many places. We see a lot of really beautiful growth in the aftermath for people that are regular participants.”
McMurrich said our culture’s lack of understanding about how to best help mothers grieve through the loss of a baby is another reason why she started Empty Arms. She said that without living through the tragedy, she too would probably not fully understand how to provide someone with the proper support, and that an event like the Syrup Stampede is an opportunity that allows for supplemental communal support to fill those gaps.
“I always say every grieving person came out of the same world that the people who are struggling to support them are still living in,” said McMurrich. “That’s one of the reasons why I think the Syrup Stampede is such an incredibly impactful event for our community because it is an opportunity for people in sort of circles outside of the grieving parents to show up with their support, whether they’re showing up in person to actually do the event or they’re donating to someone’s fundraiser, it’s a way that they can say I care about you, I care about what happened to you, and I understand that this is something that’s important to you without using any words. Sometimes that’s the best thing for both parties because the communication around this is difficult.”
Empty Arms has started programs in small community hospitals where volunteers go in to be with families at the time of their baby’s death as a peer mentor to support and help families make decisions through the difficult process that follows. She said that today, Empty Arms programming is available in all hospitals in the Connecticut River Valley and in various support groups across the state.
Empty Arms’ goal is to help as many families going through this experience as possible. She said that she has heard from Boston-area hospitals that they lack the proper resources to assist a grieving mother, another reason she hopes Empty Arms work can continue to spread to other hospitals across the state and throughout New England.
“What we’ve created here is basically the most streamlined bereavement referral process and immediate support to grief care here in Western Mass. than anyone else in New England, really,” said McMurrich. “A therapist is a really important tool for somebody navigating a crisis like this, but many will say that peer support is more helpful because instead of just your therapist telling you, ‘don’t worry, this is normal,’ you’re actually seeing that it’s normal in other people, which is what really calms the spirit. It’s really cool to me that Western Mass. is setting the standard of care for the state.”
Last year, Empty Arms served over 60 families at the bedside, and while the number may not jump out, McMurrich points out that it’s still over 60 families who would have been without the resource if not for the organization.
The organization also now has15 different monthly support groups, with each focused on a different aspect of pregnancy loss.
McMurrich said the growth of Empty Arms since she began the work has been “astonishing,” and as a former kindergarten teacher, it is a surprise to see where life took her as the leader of this nonprofit. She hopes the Empty Arms support network continues to see growth and impact in helping mothers grieve through these experiences.
“I get people multiple times a year who say to me, ‘this saved my life, I really mean that,’ and they’ll say it like that. Like ‘I really mean that, I don’t think I would’ve survived without this resource,’” said McMurrich. “I almost have a hard time digesting it because I’m like, ‘I didn’t really do anything.’ I just showed up with my own story and said, ‘hey guys, gather round, let’s do this together.’”
For more information on the work of Empty Arms or the Syrup Stampede, visit www.emptyarmsbereavement.org. To sign up for the fundraiser or learn more, visit www.syrupstampede.com.
