Race Day!

The race was a resounding suscess!  We'll be posting pictures, winners and times in the near future, so keep an eye out here!

Race Day Details

Firstly, we'd like to thank everyone for their encouragement and support on behalf of the ECH Foundation.  Just about everyone that we have contacted to help us has been overly generous, and it has been amazing!

On race day, we will be meeting on the north side of Domino's off the corner of Sweet Ave and Main St.  So that we don't clog up the Domino's parking too badly, please try and park in the Blue University lot off of Sweet Avenue and walk across the street.

The race will begin at 10:00 am, on Thursday, Dec. 31st, so please be there 30 minutes early so that we can pass out the shirts and race numbers.  Late entries are still being accepted.

The trail is marked, it looks clear, and there is just an occasional icy spot, amazing for Moscow in December!  The day is supposed to be clear, and the weather not too cold.

We're looking foward for our first annual Foundation run, and thanks for all who are participating!  We'll see you soon!

In the beginning...

We started out as a group of friends with different backgrounds and experiences.  One of the friends is, among other things that she fills her resume with, a furniture designer.  She has been my friend for a while, though not during the time that we lost our little boy.  I had told her at one time how funeral homes do not invest in infant caskets, and that the only ones that were available were molded Styrofoam, or a molded plastic pink or blue marbled thing, both of which were typical of a shoe-box design.  The Styrofoam one was free, and the molded marbled one was $100.  It is impossible to get life insurance for an infant less than 6 months old, so therefore everything comes out of pocket.  The funeral home that we went through did do the small service free of charge, but expenses also included the burial plot, renting of chairs at the cemetery, a headstone...things like that.  

So, my friend knew of our baby, and how the entire process was a little distressing.  Even though it had been a while since we lost our baby, she came to me and asked if she could design an infant casket, make it, and donate it to our local funeral home in our sons name.  I thought it was a fantastic idea.  So, she did.  It took her the better part of 2 months to come up with a design that would "do for the baby what the parents could not".

She came up with this beautiful casket that was just amazing.  She was talking about it to another friend, who just happened to be a professor in the business college on the U of I campus.  He really thought she had something there, and so that's where the discussions between all of us began. How could we take such an agonizing experience and turn it into something good?

Subsequently, the ECH Foundation was established.  It is a non-profit foundation that, through us, hopes to ease the suffering of as many parents as we can.  Our plan is, through different types of funding, establish a way for bereaving parents, family, or friends to contact us through our website and apply for a casket that we can then send to them.  The casket can also be purchased through us, and any profit is then used directly in the creation of more caskets.

Unfortunately, I cannot put a picture of the casket here, nor can I describe the unique components in it until our patent is finished.  Just trust me when I say that it is absolutely amazing, unique, and there is nothing like it out there.  We are really excited to get started and to make a difference.

Thank you to all of you who have donated to the foundation so far.  ECH Foundation is set up through US Bank, and anyone who would like to make a donation directly to us can also go into any US Bank and tell them that you would like to donate to ECH Foundation in Moscow, ID.  Just make sure and let us know who you are so we can acknowledge you!

Thanks again!
Mother of E.C.H.

ECH Foundation 5K Memorial run/walk

Life...is precious. We never know from one day to the next where it will take us. Life can go in one brief moment from great, to mind numbing. From "hey, I got this all worked out," to tingling all over the body with a sure knowledge that all is not well. That sinking in the gut feeling, that - oh, I can’t get enough air in feeling, that - heart racing right out of your chest feeling, that - is this really real feeling, that - if I just play back that last 3 seconds, I will hear differently this time feeling. Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. Some of you have caught glimpses. No one is completely immune to it, unfortunately. After all, it is life.

We have all heard and read that pregnancy and childbirth is a wonderful time... and we have also read that sometimes things don’t go as planned. When you hear the news that everything is not quite normal, many things go through your head. But it seems, for many, the first is hope. Hopefully it’s not as bad as it sounds...hopefully they missed something...hopefully if they run another test, it will be okay...hopefully there’s a chance...hopefully...and sometimes hopefully works. There are many miracle babies out there. I wish every one of them could be.

But, reality is reality. When it comes crashing down, all that we have left are our memories. We have created this foundation to help with one of the final memories that we will have of seeing these babies. In the words of a co-founder...


“Several years ago, some dear friends of mine had a baby boy who died just two hours after his birth. As my friends prepared for his funeral, they discovered that because funeral homes do not invest in infant caskets, their options were to purchase a molded plastic box, or accept a Styrofoam version for free. Their financial circumstances meant that they had to lay their baby to rest in a Styrofoam box that looked like a cooler.

Because of this, my friend asked me to design and build a casket in their son’s memory to be donated and hopefully spare another family the same awful choice.

As I listened to my friend, I watched her hands grasping at the air as if they wanted to hold something that wasn’t there. To me this meant that the casket must do for the baby what his mother and father could no longer do...”


A design has been implemented, and the foundation now exists. We have developed this foundation to help reach out to those families whose only option is to bury their babies in a Styrofoam box. What we need now is your help. Help to reach out to needy families that are going through the impossible. Help for those families who have had lost an infant 0-6 months. It is next to impossible to get life insurance on a baby less than 6 months old, let alone one in utero. What choices are out there? They are limited. But we have created another.

On December 31, 2009, a significant date in the ECH Foundation, we are having a tri-state kick-off memorial run/walk, and we encourage all to participate. Whether you do it in your own home town, with your friends, with a running/walking group, with your kids, with your spouse, by yourself, whatever. We just encourage to get out and, for this time, go 5K. The link to the entry form is found here. You don’t have to run, and if that’s not for you, you do have the option to just donate. Please fill out and return to the accompanying address. The due date is December 11th to ensure a shirt, so hurry!

Stephens Gourmet Hot Cocoa has agreed to donate some of their hot chocolate to us, so if you get enough of a group together, we’ll make sure and send some your way. After all, it is in December!

Take care all, be safe, and remember, we all CAN make a difference.

We are starting soon!

Stay tuned and updated!!!