Twelfth Annual Fundraiser our MOST successful yet!

Wow and thank you!!! We are once again overwhelmed by your generosity!! We raised close to $14,000!!!! INCREDIBLE!

With this and what we have already raised, we take the next step toward opening the new non-profit, The HIP ME Project. To learn more about it and what's happening in the next few months, please visit the website:
www.hipmeproject.org

Your continued support is making this all possible!
With tremendous gratitude and love,
Matt's family

Happy 40th Birthday Mattie! We MISS you....

Mattie/Mateo,

Today you would be turning 40. It’s so hard to comprehend what that means. I can’t figure out what is more difficult to believe. That you have been gone for a LONG twelve and a half years or that you have been gone for ONLY twelve and a half years. Both perspectives are real. Both are deeply painful. It’s hard to remember life before my three beautiful children and yet that is the life that you were a part of. You died two years before I became a mom. You never met our children…at least not on this physical plane. And divinely there is a healing beauty in that reality because I know without a doubt that you helped orchestrate our family. You helped guide us to our children at just the right time(s). And I see parts of you, your essence, in all of them. You would have been an amazing uncle. You would have been an amazing dad. I’m so sorry that you weren’t able to experience that in this lifetime.

And yet you did parent so many children. All of the students at North who knew they could trust you, depend on you, look up to you and be seen by you. You were a parent, an uncle, a teacher, a light. I wish you would have honored how bright your light was while you were here. I wish you would have seen it, felt it and embraced it.

I’m not sure you ever fully felt the impact you made because you were just being you. You were being real, you were raw, you didn’t have time for bullshit, you lived with a wide-open heart, which brought about so much pain AND joy. You didn’t work to gain recognition or praise. You weren’t trying to achieve anything or set yourself apart from anyone. You were being you.

You loved deeply and unapologetically. You were way too hard on yourself. You were a perfectionist to a fault. You never really settled into your skin but you were vulnerable and connected. You never fully embraced your awesomeness or your reason for being. BUT you left a huge, brilliant mark on so many. A legacy you weren’t worried about leaving.

And for that, for your brilliant light, for the incredible legacy you left, thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being my little brother. Thank you for staying close all of these years. Thank you for your guidance. Thank you for your protection. Thank you for reminding us that nothing in life is guaranteed. Nothing is permanent, not even death.  I know that to be true. I know the line separating us is not very thick. I wish everyday you were still in the physical world with us AND I know you are never very far.

I love you. I will miss you forever. Happy 40th Birthday!

Jason, Bryan and I will DEFINITELY take a shot of SoCo for you tonight, and I’m sure others will too. You are forever in our hearts…

Twelfth Annual Fundraiser SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2019 at 5pm

We hope you can join us at our annual fundraiser. Back at Tara & Bryan's home. Please email for information: taraemrick@hotmail.com.
We have exciting information to share about our new non-profit.....

Fundriaser a great success AND exciting news story!

Hello! We wanted to THANK YOU all for your continued support of the Matthew Emrick Memorial Fund and let you know that the fundraiser was another huge success!! We raised over $11,000! AMAZING! We could not do any of this without your incredible support. 

Because of you, we have raised enough money to not only endow the scholarship so that is a permanent fixture at North BUT we have also been able to fund the new ME Wing at the school (more information below).

We wanted to share a WONDERFUL news story that recently aired on KUNC (NPR in Greeley and Fort Collins) that was put together by our dear friend Stephanie Daniel. You can read about it as well as listen to it below:

http://www.kunc.org/post/how-colorado-middle-school-brings-mindfulness-stress-relief-students-and-teachers

Due to the success of the ME Wing at North, we are starting a separate non-profit that will work to bring this mindfulness model into schools and pediatric clinics. We are at the very beginning stages of this endeavor and it will be a separate entity from the Matthew Emrick Fund. Please check out our website below and stay tuned....

https://www.hipmeproject.org

ELEVENTH ANNUAL FUNDRAISER Saturday, February 24th at 5pm

Please join us for the Eleventh Annual Matthew Emrick Memorial Scholarship Fundraiser on SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24th at 5pm. We are moving to a new location in Thornton. We look forward to sharing exciting news about the M.E. Wing at North. All are welcome...the more the merrier. Please email Tara for more information:
taraemrick@hotmail.com

Please join us for the M.E. Wing dedication on September 26th at 6pm...

Sign on the outside of the M.E. Wing at North

Buying iPads and iPods for the M.E. Wing

Walking through the space for the first time

The space before the creation of the mindfulness corner 

The girls helping bring items into the Wing (and somehow Cece is officially a Middle Schooler...can you tell by her attitude?:)

Delivering more stuff 

Kahlil Matthew "helping" to put together storage racks

Buying tables and more...

Before picture of the space...can't wait to post the after pictures

One final before picture...

We truly cannot believe how this has all come together. It definitely feels divinely orchestrated. The staff at North Middle School has been UNBELIEVABLE.  We will never be able to express our gratitude for keeping Matt's legacy alive at North. The M.E. Wing is a HUGE space at North that will now be the home of the mental health support team, along with communal meeting spaces, a small library, AND the M.E. Mindfulness Project which is being funded by all of the generous donors of the Matthew Emrick Memorial Fund (formerly the Matthew Emrick Memorial Scholarship). The Mindfulness corner includes a space for students to plug into HeartMath (a biofeedback program that assists in breathing, grounding, regulating, and so much more), a space for students to listen to guided meditations, a creative space with mandalas, coloring pencils, paper for journaling, writing poetry etc, AND a space to put down a yoga mat, move through poses, sit on an exercise ball, or lay down and rest. The M.E. Mindfulness Project will have a permanent staff member to support students using the space. The MOST exciting part of this is that we hope to assist the school in replacing regular detention with the use of the M.E. Mindfulness Project and support team in the M.E. Wing.

We are co-hosting the dedication of the M.E. Wing on September 26th at 6pm.  Please join us! For more information about the dedication OR the M.E. Wing in general, please email mememorialfund@gmail.com or call 720.232.6514.

TENTH Annual Fundraiser raised $15,000!!! We are overwhelmed by your generosity!!!! PLUS exciting news about growing the scholarship AND Matt's birthday this year....

I have wanted to post since Matt's birthday in February and then again after the fundraiser but here we are in July, a few days after the 11th anniversary of his death and the time is right...

WOW!!! We cannot believe how successful our TENTH annual fundraiser was.  THANK YOU all so much for your incredible support!!!! There are SO many people to thank BUT we especially want to thank the people who have donated items to the silent auction every year for the past 10 years: Jackie, Rian, Matt H and LoDo's Bar & Grill....to Grapevine Liquor and JJ Heims for providing drinks and printing the invitations, AND to Amy & Octavio for donating so generously EVERY year & to the Patricia Crowley Foundation for your continued support. We continue to feel overwhelmed by your commitment to growing Matt's Scholarship....

Thank you Susie & Rick for providing such beautiful, amazing food for the fundraiser AND to Sarah, Beth, Mary Ann, Lara, & the Prykes for all of your help during the fundraiser!

We are very excited to announce that we are gearing up to open a new area at North Middle School dedicated to Matt, the ME Wing.  This new space will include a mindfulness room for the students to use in lieu of traditional detention.  We will post more detailed information when we have it but we wanted you all to know that your support has made this all possible.  Matt will be a permanent presence at North AND we will now be able to offer support to all of the students at North, not just the scholarship nominees and winners!!!! More to come.....

Bald eagle we saw at City Park on Matt's 38th Birthday, February 6, 2017

Finally, I have wanted to write about Matt's birthday this year and somehow the time slipped away. Kahlil and I went for a walk in City Park on February 6th and saw a bald eagle.  It was beyond amazing!! I felt like it was a beautiful connection to Matt....it made me drop in to what his 38th birthday meant to me.  I thought about how significant my 38th birthday was for me....it was the year I was pregnant with Kahlil....such a blessing.  February 6th was such a bittersweet day, as it always is, but this year I felt so much sadness that Matt was never able to become a father yet his spirit is so very present in his nephew and nieces.  I realized that this past decade for me began with the death of my beautiful younger brother Matthew (4 months after I turned 30) AND ended with the birth of my beautiful son, Kahlil Matthew (4 months before I turned 40).  And Selecia and Adalea were born into our family during that decade....so many blessings amongst the darkest period of my life....and that's really what it is all about...this being human....bright beautiful light coming out of complete darkness....joy and sorrow on the same coin....can't have one without the other....it means missing Matt everyday and remembering to feel grateful for our blessings everyday.  It is a daily practice, especially with the darkness in the world right now, but we are being called to bring forth our light....bright, open, vulnerable, real....find our healing and support others along the way....and out of this a beautiful healing space, the ME Wing, is being birthed at North Middle School and I feel grateful for what this decade will bring.....sending love & light to all of you....thank you Matt for continuing to stay close...we miss and love you....

2017 Scholarship winners