Sunday’s Jog for James raises awareness for stillbirths

Wilmette resident Kathleen McCoy and her family are turning their grief and lived experiences into action. 

This Sunday, May 17, they are hosting Jog for James, a 5K with a 1-mile walk or run option, in honor of their stillborn son, James. The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. at Community Playfield in Wilmette. 

Those interested in getting involved in the inaugural event can register, for in-person or virtual participation, via the Jog for James website.

To date, the event has raised more than $42,000 for the Count the Kicks app, a free-evidence based fetal movement monitoring tool designed to help end preventable stillbirths. McCoy said she has continuously had to increase Jog for James’ fundraising goal thanks to the “unbelievable” response from the North Shore community. 

The Count the Kicks app was created by Healthy Birth Day, the leading stillbirth prevention organization in the United States, for which McCoy is an Illinois ambassador.

James McCoy

McCoy is deeply connected to the cause through her personal experiences. In December of 2022, her third child, James, was stillborn. 

“It was a normal, healthy pregnancy,” McCoy shared with The Record. “There were no warning signs. We went in for a scheduled C-section … and at that point in time, we were told there was no heartbeat. To say we were blindsided is an understatement. It’s one of those moments that there’s a clear before and after. There was a before we heard that news and after, and there’s no in-between.

“After that, I knew I needed to do something to channel hope because … I didn’t want that to be the end of James’ story. I didn’t want that to be the end of my story in terms of that pregnancy, and I was committed to having his life live on.”

In October 2023, McCoy ran the Marine Corps Marathon, which finishes at Arlington National Cemetery where her father, James, after whom her son was named, is buried. The Marine Corps Marathon is also the only marathon her dad had ever run, so all signs pointed her in that direction.

She fundraised for Healthy Birth Day, raising $7,500, which was then matched by Microsoft, where her sister works. 

“Crossing that finish line was incredibly meaningful, as it connected my father and my son in a deeply personal way,” McCoy wrote in an email to The Record. 

The following year, McCoy ran the Chicago Marathon, raising another $11,000-plus.

Fundraising through these marathons inspired McCoy to create Jog for James.

“I’m incredibly, incredibly grateful for it,” McCoy said of the first-year event. “I just can’t say how much it means to me to be able to talk about my son, to be able to feel like his legacy is doing something really powerful and meaningful. That’s been really helpful to feel like something good can come with something so awful.”

Why an event

McCoy shared the three main purposes of the event — which is meant to be celebratory, meaningful and family friendly — with The Record. 

The first goal, she said, is to build awareness for stillbirths. 

“Stillbirth is something that often you don’t hear about until it happens to you, and it’s not to scare people or anything like that,” McCoy said. “It’s to increase awareness for evidence-based tools that exist that have been shown to help prevent stillbirths. Approximately 25 percent of stillbirths are thought to be preventable.”

She said Count the Kicks has been shown to decrease stillbirths by over 30% in Iowa, as an example. 

That’s why, ultimately, another purpose of the event is to fundraise for Count the Kicks and support the evidence-based tools and advocacy efforts of Healthy Birth Day. 

“By increasing the dialogue about stillbirths and evidence-based prevention tools, hopefully we’re going to help to save some lives,” McCoy added of the importance of raising awareness for stillbirths. 

The second purpose, she said, is to help connect families who have experienced loss through stillbirths. 

“It’s awful on so many levels,” she said. “We often don’t get to say our baby’s name on a daily basis. If our babies were here, we would. But, it is something that often people shy away from, and so we don’t get to talk about our babies. And so this is an opportunity for us to connect with one another and celebrate our babies.”

Race day

Event-day T-shirts will include the names, submitted by various loss families, of approximately 22 babies on the back. At the start of the event, the babies’ names will be said aloud as well. 

There will also be a DJ, face painting and a balloon artist. 

“It’s not meant to be a sad, somber [event],” McCoy said. “Instead, it’s about bringing people together and connecting for a common good. There’s no [race] bibs. It’s not timed. That’s not the purpose.”

McCoy said she looks forward to seeing how Sunday goes and hopes to make it an annual event. 

“I have really, personally, felt moved in the conversations I’ve had with a couple of the loss families, and hearing their stories personally, that’s everything to me,” she said. “That’s the why. That’s the heart of the event. And that, personally, helps me in my healing process, so selfishly, I want to also do it because it’s helpful for my own healing process.” 

One hundred and eighty six people had registered for the event, both for in-person and virtual participation, as of May 12.

“I really am just incredibly touched and blown away by the support and the rallying of the community, both within Wilmette and the broader North Shore area,” McCoy said. “There’s loss families from all over the North Shore that are participating, which is really, really amazing.”

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