Erick was my 12 year old cousin that passed away 2 and one half years ago from congenital heart disease. He would have been 15 on March 1st. After his death, my Mom and I were sitting around my Aunt and Uncle’s kitchen table with some family members, when we came up with the idea to memorialize Erick though the creation of a non profit foundation. Erick loved other children and was always more concerned about those less fortunate than himself. Erick’s Hope was born- a small non profit to carry on Erick’s mission to provide physical, emotional and spiritual support to marginalized children through a variety of programs.
One of those programs is called Smart Sacks. Two to three times a year, Erick’s Hope does food drives for kid friendly as well as healthy foods (100% juice boxes, fruit snacks, peanut butter, granola bars, etc). This year, as always, my family participated in the food drive and then helped to assemble the boxes of food. This food is provided to marginalized children who receive free or subsidized lunches at school, so that they have nutritional food to eat on the weekends. Each smart sack includes 11 items. This year, 596 smart sacks were produced - that is 596 children that Erick’s Hope helped to feed!!
It is timely that I blog about Erick, because he was the inspiration for me to get involved with the Heart Association and Tuesday was the anniversary of his birthday. Erick was born with 8 congenital heart defects and his only hope was a heart/lung transplant. Unfortunately, he passed away prior to that happening. Erick was one of the most spiritual people that I ever met. He was very aware that he might die, but told his father, my Uncle Richard, that he was not afraid because he was going to be with God. I am sure that is the case and he is smiling down from Heaven as we carry on his legacy of helping children.
Juliana McKee
Comments
Post a Comment