Our Story

Founders Mike and Anna LaBenz

On July 20, 2006, Mike and Anna LaBenz lost their precious son to stillbirth; the result of an umbilical cord accident. After losing JLB, Jack’s Little Brother, and his forever namesake, Mike and Anna teamed up with Northland Hospice and Palliative Care to create the JLB Project, a program designed to provide supportive care to families who have lost a baby due to miscarriage, still birth or infant death.

JLB Project offers assistance with grief counseling, online resources, financial assistance with headstones and some direction for those who are grieving the loss of their baby. JLB Project also provides baskets of resources, hand and foot molds, blankets, disposable cameras, and more to parents while they are in the hospital. Anna is a certified Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep photographer and will either personally provide or connect the family to another certified photographer who will provide professional services to take pictures of the family and their baby.

Another facet of JLB Project will be to provide education to our medical communities regarding infant death and identifying the imminent signs and symptoms that can potentially prevent them from occurring.

JLB Project is also working to create a Children’s Memorial Park in Flagstaff, as we believe that our babies live on because we remember them.

Thank you for taking the time to read about JLB Project and how we can make a difference in our community. Please remember us if you or a loved one experiences the loss of a baby. Those involved in JLB Project understand that grieving the loss of a baby can be a very lonely road and if we can make that journey a little less lonely, we will.