Where it all started
Tanner's story
Tanner John Franck was stillborn October 23, 2016. His family spent 12 precious hours with him filled with love, cuddles, pictures, hello's and goodbye's thanks to a CuddleCot the hospital had available. After struggling with the loss his family chose to find a way to honor Tanner by helping support other families suffering pregnancy and infant loss. They find healing in comforting and supporting other loss families.
Loving Tanner is a 501(c)3 charitable, non-profit that exists to support and advocate for families suffering pregnancy and infant loss. We work to educate the public and break the stigma associated with pregnancy and infant loss. Our organization is part of the initiative to have a Cuddle Cot placed in every hospital.
We offer care boxes, peer support, certificates of life, and remembrance items all free of charge.
OUR MISSION
Provide love and support to those facing miscarriage, stillbirth and infant loss.
We will walk alongside loss families on their grief journey.
Meet the Team
Danielle & Tyler Franck
Founders of Loving Tanner and parents of Tanner John and his four living brothers Hunter, Cooper, Oliver, and Jasper. We live in Rural Independence. After losing Tanner we wanted a way to honor his short life. We knew the loneliness and isolation that comes with loss and hoped by sharing our story we could lessen those feelings just a bit. Through Loving Tanner we've found peace in our hearts by honoring our son through supporting other loss families.
Kayleigh Stamp
Hi I’m Kayleigh! I live in Hazleton, IA with my husband, Josh and our sons, Cohen and Cade. Our first born son, Knox was stillborn at 36 weeks. Loving Tanner made it possible for us to spend time with him through their donation of a Cuddlecot. We were also given the opportunity to donate a Cuddlecot in memory of our sweet Knox through Loving Tanner. I know how deeply heartbreaking it is to deal with stillbirth, infant loss and miscarriage and am grateful to be part of an organization whose mission it is to serve those families.
Suzanne Bellinger
My name is Suzanne Bellinger and I have been a nurse at MercyOne Waterloo Birth Center for 29 years. During this time, I always had a soft spot in my heart for families experiencing fetal or newborn loss and knew this was an area that we could improve on. So, I made it my personal mission to improve resources and education to Birth Center nurses as well as loss families. This is how I met Danielle and learned of Loving Tanner. I believe in Loving Tanners mission and purpose and am happy to be a part of it! Personally, I live on an acreage in Denver, Iowa with my husband, Warren. We have 3 adult children and 4, soon to be 5, grandchildren. We love Iowa Hawkeye sports and antique tractors and steam engines. On the weekends we can be found playing around our acreage with our kids and grandkids or watching the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Amber Hankins
I was born and raised in Winthrop, IA and currently reside in Edgewood, IA with my husband Jason, daughter Cora, son Cash and dog Fergie. The Loving Tanner non-profit organization has a very special place in my family’s heart as our first born, daughter, Macie was stillborn at 39 weeks on August 18, 2017. No one should have to go through a miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death alone. Being on the board of this amazing non-profit organization makes me feel very grateful and honored.
Kristen Engelbrecht
My name is Kristen, I live in Independence. My husband, Jon and I got married in 2018 and we have 3 cats. I work as a nurse. We decided to start growing our family in 2022 and unfortunately found out we lost our first baby at our 12 week OB appointment; later we named this baby Ollie. 7 months later we lost our second baby at 17 weeks. We got to spend 6 hours with our sweet Lydia Grace after she was born. Since then, I have been passionate about helping moms and families in similar situations as we were, also am passionate about honoring sweet babies in heaven ♥️
Trisha Hansen
My name is Trisha Hansen I live in Winthrop,IA with my husband Bill and our 3 children Will, Alivia, and Lillian.
I have known Danielle for many years and always have loved what she has done with the LovingTanner organization. I’m looking forward to bouncing ideas off of her and helping her in many ways. I’m very excited to see what the future holds. I look forward to helping those families we have suffered a loss.
Steve Huggins
Steve joins the Loving Tanner team with experience supporting bereaved families and a wealth of knowledge about the unique needs of those who lose a baby.
As one half of the team behind the concept and design of the CuddleCot, he feels very passionately that every family should have the choice of spending time with their baby when they have died.