Keller Photography
Kami Wernimont
In 2018, following two pregnancy losses, Kami Wernimont struggled to find support as she endured the physical and emotional effects that followed. The resources she was pointed to weren’t accessible.
“I had to really dig on that website to figure out where that support was, and it didn’t really give me the answers I needed,” Wernimont says.
Once she found her answers, she felt a drive to fill the gap in support.
Alongside her future Board of Directors – a team of several women, including people influential in her healing, mentors from past jobs and other women in the postpartum world – Wernimont founded Let the Light In in 2023 to provide support and resources for the one in four women who experience the same heartache she had.
Having marked its three-year anniversary in July, Let the Light In continues expanding community connections as it finds its home in Grove City.
Building connections
From the beginning, Let the Light In established relationships with loss organizations, hospitals, providers and other resources to offer families a network of support.
L. Gilliland Photography
“We built relationships with them, knowing that we don’t do what they do and they don’t do what we do,” Wernimont says. “(Families) don’t need to wade through all the research and find what they need.”
She says community is at the heart of Let the Light In, with connection events, such as its Bereaved Mother’s Day Brunch, allowing those who’ve experienced miscarriage, pregnancy loss, infant loss or infertility to share their experiences and find support.
While some invite a friend to come with them, the free event is supported by community partners and sponsors who invite their own attendees too.
Wernimont says attendance at the Bereaved Mother’s Day Brunch has grown from 40 in its first year to 96 this year.
L. Gilliland Photography
“I can always tell the success of that event by how much talking and chatter is in the room, and this year, it was so loud. It was so wonderful,” she says.
Nikki Smith, operations chair for Let the Light In, says it’s incredibly beautiful to hear attendees afterwards talk about the breadth of the community and support present.
“Even if we have people that have never first or secondhand experienced one of these types of losses, getting them to see and understand that impact will ripple out from there because now they know this exists,” says Smith. “And when they see somebody in either their practice or in their personal life that has (experienced) this, they know this resource is available.”
Smith isn’t surprised by the success of Let the Light In, and is excited to see it grow.
“It still warms me every time I see new connections being made, new organizations supporting us,” Smith says. “The amount of support we’re receiving really makes me happy.”
Compassionate companionship
Central to Let the Light In is its Companion Support Program, which Wernimont built using her background as a life coach, certified miscarriage doula and training in perinatal grief and loss, and perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs).
Aly Romot
Photos from the 2026 Bereaved Mothers Day Brunch
Companion Support offers both in-person and virtual one-on-one sessions, ensuring mothers don’t have to navigate grief alone. Importantly, the sessions are free.
“When we started as a nonprofit, we knew we wanted to remove all barriers for support. We agreed as a board that we were going to keep this as a free option for people,” Wernimont says.
She emphasizes that Companion Support is not counseling or medical care, but peer support.
Aly Romot
“It is being able to talk with someone that gets it, to have a safe space to feel it all, to ask the questions, to cry, to be mad, to scream, to navigate relationships, to navigate going back to work,” she says. “Companion Support is based off of what they need in the moment.”
Wernimont says Let the Light In is seeking to shift the narrative around miscarriage and pregnancy loss, particularly by recognizing the postpartum period following pregnancy loss and ensuing grief. Her main goal is to ensure bereaved mothers are seen and heard.
“We want people to recognize miscarriage and pregnancy loss as grief, as bereavement. This pregnancy matters. It existed. Moms especially have a connection as soon as they see those two pink lines on a test. That’s where attachment begins for them,” Wernimont says. “It doesn’t matter when that loss occurs... Grief matters and there’s no comparison. It all just breaks your heart.”
Aly Romot
The nonprofit further supports mothers through pregnancy after loss, helping them navigate complicated feelings of grief, anxiety, joy and excitement. It also provides screenings for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, as women who’ve experienced pregnancy loss are at a higher risk for developing PMADs.
As of its three-year anniversary, Let the Light In has provided more than 200 hours of Companion Support, with Wernimont as the sole provider.
She says people from across the country have reached out, and she’s working on creating a training program for Companion Support.
“As awareness of what we provide grows, we need more people to provide that support,” she says.
A home for hope and healing
Wernimont, who calls Grove City her hometown and moved back in 2023, says it feels good to establish the nonprofit in the community.
L. Gilliland Photography
“We’re in a great area. We’re able to welcome people in full time,” Wernimont says. “There’s a lot of heart here, and I am looking forward to strengthening those connections.”
To enhance local connections, Let the Light In is hosting its first conference along with its annual Silent Auction Fundraiser at the Aladdin Shrine Center on Sept. 29.
“It was really important to me to bring it here. If we’re going to put down roots here, we’re going to invest in our community here,” Wernimont says.
She says the goal of the conference is to educate and bring together families, community members and professionals from the organizations that are in Let the Light In’s network.
Like its other events, the conference requires all hands on deck, with board members and a network of volunteers pitching in.
Wernimont says Let the Light In has been volunteer-driven from day one and she’s grateful to all those who show up in support. She eventually hopes to achieve enough funding to have a paid staff so the nonprofit can grow beyond central Ohio.
She says she never imagined Let the Light In would build the community it has and is in awe of the connections made and the comfort they’ve been able to provide for so many mothers.
“It’s just an honor to be able to hold space for these women and to remember their babies with them,” Wernimont says.
Amanda Stevens is a contributing writer at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at astevens@cityscenemediagroup.com.
