Ashley And Erika Foundation

Senior Project by Summer BrownChristmas of 2012

The Ashley And Erika Foundation was founded in loving memory of Ashley Bender and Erika Mattern in hopes to

stop drinking and driving. Ashley and Erika lost their young lives to a drunk driver and now people from our

community want to help other families who have also lost someone special to them or who are in a financial crisis. The goal of the Ashley And Erika Foundation is to help these families in need any way possible they can during

Christmastime. They pick a handful of families each year and go to Kohl’s for clothing, toys, etc. and the items are

then delivered to the families on Christmas Eve.

I chose this as my Senior Project because my uncle, Jeremy Brown, has been a part of the Ashley And Erika Foundation ever since it was

founded. He was in charge of the Foundation this year and I thought it would be a good idea to help in any way I can. Both my uncle and I wanted to make this one of the best years for the Foundation, so I

recruited some extra help…

My church, Grace Reformed Church in Troxelville.

After several months of collecting new store-bought or handmade hats, gloves, scarves, coats, socks, and underwear, alone, Grace

Reformed Church donated a total of 141 items including: 3 winter coats, 64 hats, 46 pairs of gloves, 8 scarves, 13 packages of socks,

3 packages of underwear, 2 ear warmers, 1 pair of boots, and 1 pair of pajama bottoms.

I asked them if they would mind donating anything new that would help the families, and these are the people who helped.

And here’s EVERYTHING!!!

There’s MORE!!!

With all of this stuff, plus the things we bought with the money

from the Ashley And Erika Foundation for the two families that we were assigned, it only

took me a total of 18 ½ hours to do it all until everything was

folded, in boxes, and wrapped...

These are all of the presents for the 2 families we were assigned to shop for.

And here is every present I wrapped. We had so many donations from the people from

Grace Reformed Church that every

person in each family had at least 2 winter

hats and gloves, some 3 of each.

Here we are, Jeremy and I, at the Bender’s on Christmas Eve getting ready to head out to deliver the gifts.

The presents below are for the family the Bender’s were

assigned to.

Well, here we are. This year’s foundation involved 7 families. For the first 5, we split up and half of us went one way and delivered

to 3 of the families, and the other half delivered to 2 of the families. But then we met up at IGA in Middleburg to deliver to the last 2 families together. The parking lot of IGA is where this

picture was taken.

When Ashley and Erika were in first grade with my uncle, Jeremy as their teacher, he had his whole

class make birthday cards for me. I found them again after my senior project was finished. This is the

one that Ashley had made for me, the front, middle, and back of it.

This is the front, middle, and back of the one Erika had made for me.

It was a great year for the foundation and I wish to continue helping in the same ways that I had this year. My church loved

the idea so much that they are now a permanent part of the Ashley And Erika Foundation and hopefully we will continue to

have great years for both the the foundation and the families. With the church now helping, the foundation can save money

from buying winter hats, gloves, etc. and focus more on the basic necessities such as everyday clothing. I hope to continue making

a difference and can’t wait to see what the future years bring.