It was an idyllic scene. A mother, coddling her baby boy, looked lovingly at her husband as they laughed over something just said. Their nine-year-old daughter danced through the kitchen while the three-month-old baby stared wide-eyed at his mother, waiting patiently for her attention again. A rather large dog, a golden doodle, paced the room expecting to be petted by everyone.

Anyone observing this scene would probably never guess the tragedy this family suffered three short years ago when they lost their three-year-old son Drew in a traffic accident while on vacation. By Melisa Patrick

Shattered by their loss, the Taylors, Marcie and Randy, wanted to find a way to make their loss mean something—to have something positive come out of their tragedy.

Their way was the establishment of a non-profit foundation, the Drew Michael Taylor Foundation that keeps a perpetual focus on positively impacting the lives of others. The young foundation sponsors a number of scholarships, awards, activities, and educational programs. Two major programs of the Drew Michael Taylor Foundation have a major impact on students attending Shippensburg University.

While the family was moving the foundation forward with events and programs, they were also looking for ways to do more. It was on one of the many almost hour-long trips the family made to a support program that Marcie turned to Randy and said, “We can do this.” Marcie wanted other grieving people to have somewhere close to home where they could go for support from others who were experiencing similar losses. So, with collaboration with the university, Marcie’s desire took form as a life-changing program to benefit others—Drew’s Hope.

Started in the fall of 2008, Drew’s Hope is a series of grief and loss support groups that cater to adults, teens, and children who have lost family members. “Everybody grieves differently,” Marcie said. “You have to allow people to grieve in their own way—there’s no playbook for it.” In keeping with the understanding of the uniqueness of each person’s grief, and especially the different grief processes that children go through, Marcie wanted Drew’s Hope to include support for kids as well as their families.

With the help of Bill McHenry, assistant professor, and Shirley Hess, associate professor, of the counseling department, and advanced students in the graduate counseling program, Marcie and Randy were able to create a program that fit the needs of grieving families in the area. Supervised by professors McHenry and Hess, the graduate students facilitate the Drew’s Hope support groups. Children are grouped by age and the adults by type of loss.

“Participants have the opportunity to enjoy the interactions with each other, engage in activities designed for their specific age-group, have their experience normalized, and both give and receive support,” Hess said. “Although grieving the death of a love one is a universal experience, there are not many places and opportunities for the bereaved to talk about their loved one, experience the feelings related to their grief, and to grieve with others who are experiencing a similar loss. Drew’s Hope offers the opportunity for those in need to connect with one another, to not feel like an outsider, and to have their grief embraced.

Both qualitative and quantitative data show participants benefit from the service, McHenry reports. “Benefits include increased connections with family, coping more effectively with loss, and specific to adults who spend so much time taking care of the kids needs, it is nice for them to get a chance to have others listen and care for them.”

Participation in the groups is free and prior to the on-campus sessions, the families and volunteers enjoy dinner. During the fall session eight families took part in the services. During the spring semester, twelve families, ten of which were new, attended the support program.

Drew’s Hope not only helps grieving families but it also gives valuable career experience to students in Ship’s graduate counseling program. The program is incorporated into the grief and loss course and all the students remarked the most powerful aspect was having the opportunity to directly apply what they were learning and that it was one of the most meaningful experiences they had in their graduate program.

The Taylor family before the tragedy: Lauren, Randy, Marcie, and Drew. Right: Ship counseling students learn by experience at Drew’s Hope - a program for families who have suffered a loss. The program supports children and adults in their grieving process.

Activities abound as Karsten and Nora Braun, children of Turi Braun, a Ship faculty member, can attest. Ready, Set, Go! programs are where university students prepare, coordinate and present age-appropriate programs. To the left are typical event flyers for the Drew Michael Taylor Foundation fundraisers.

“The students who volunteer get the opportunity to ‘see’ and experience the actual process of coping with grief, healing, support groups, and effective ways to facilitate a group. Almost to a member, each of our student volunteers have described this experience as life-altering. Powerful stuff,” McHenry said. Michael Spencer, a graduate assistant with Drew’s Hope and a student counselor agrees. “Working with the families provided an amazing opportunity for me to hone my group counseling skills. More importantly, it allowed me to be of service to families who are working through the profound grief that accompanies the loss of a loved one.”

Ready, Set, Go! is another Drew Michael Taylor Foundation program that also benefits university students. It provides information to parents to help them get their children ready for kindergarten.

The program is the result of collaboration between the university’s literacy center, the Shippensburg Area School District and the Drew Michael Taylor Foundation. Cheryl Slattery, associate professor of teacher education, coordinates the university’s participation through her classes and Kappa Delta Pi, the educational honor society. Each semester approximately seventy Ship students are involved in the event.

Students in the Reading in Content Areas course prepare more than twenty different literacy content-driven and visually appealing parent brochures. In addition to providing information on literacy development, materials include choosing appropriate books, motivation, and reading with children. The brochures are handed out at evening programs in October and April. Parents spend the evening in information sessions conducted by school district personnel.

The Teaching Reading class students work in teams to prepare about ten literacy workshops for all of the pre-school and school-age children who attend the Ready, Set, Go! program. During the evening, children spend about ten minutes at each workshop designed to promote literacy skills through activities. The workshops often include poetry, show and tell, songs, and story telling. Childcare, provided by members of Kappa Delta Pi, is available for those children not attending the Ready, Set, Go activities.

Slattery is pleased her students have the opportunity to connect with children, parents, and other professionals through the program. “I see their participation as a win-win situation. My students gain valuable experience working with young children and creating and implementing authentic literacy activities for children. They also provide a service to the community that crafts a powerful feeling of accomplishment in contributing to the greater good, something I believe is a significant factor in the teaching profession.”

Even the very young enjoy basketball and Dunks for Drew. Teams congratulation one another for a good game for a good cause.

A sample of the foundation’s activities includes the Greencastle-Antrim Community Service Award that honors a student who completes a service project with a positive impact on children; the Lancaster Catholic Scholarship for a senior who is pursuing a career in the ministry or a medical field; tuition for a low-income student to attend Lancaster Catholic; and the Scotland School for Veterans’ Children Incentive Program which recognizes good citizenship and academic achievement by sending six students to an SU Summer camp of their choice. There have been basketball games, community run-walks, dodge ball games, and other fundraising activities all supported by the Drew Michael Taylor Foundation and enjoyed in Drew’s memory.

For Randy, pouring everything he had into establishing the foundation in his son’s name was a “lifeline” as he put it. “Those darkest days, those darkest hours, knowing that we were going to keep Drew’s name alive and we were going to create a foundation to help others—that was huge.”

For Marcie, the most rewarding part of setting up the foundation is hearing testimonials from families who have been helped in their son’s memory. “It lessens the blow,” she said. Randy cites the little moments as being the most rewarding for him like watching families in the “Dash for Drew” or seeing students from Scotland School receive recognition for their achievements, or antics on the golf course during tournaments held by the foundation.

Left, the proud authors of I Miss My Brother hope it will help others deal with loss and grief. Above, the Taylor family today: Marcie, Lauren, Seth Andrew, and Randy.

Nine-year-old Lauren is aware of what the Drew Michael Taylor Foundation can do. “It’s cool because we help a lot of people and it lets people express their feelings,” she said during a cookie break. The Taylor’s believe allowing Lauren to speak about and remember her brother was the best way to help her through the traumatic experience. After Drew’s passing, Randy used the time just prior to the bedtime story to talk with Lauren about her little brother. Often he would write down her thoughts and memories in a journal that became their book, I Miss My Brother. Illustrated by Holly Rothrock, a high school student, the book is yet another way the Taylors hope others can benefit from their loss.

From the beginning, with five Ship degrees between them, Marcie and Randy wanted the university involved in their efforts to positively impact lives. Randy makes no secret his family and the Drew Michael Taylor Foundation were and are supported by members of the Ship community. He smiles as he recalls countless students and professors like Joe Borell (communication/journalism) and Kara Laskowski (human communication studies), among others who have involved their students in foundation projects.

The Taylors have been humbled and touched by the tremendous amount of support they and their foundation have received. “The selfish part of the foundation,” Randy said, “is that we get to use our son’s name in the present and in the future tense.”

Looking toward the future, the Taylors wanted another child and on December 30, 2008, they welcomed their son Seth Andrew into the world. As Marcie put it, “The future is bright.”

Visit www.drewmichaeltaylor.org for information on the foundation and its activities. I Miss My Brother is also available through the website and all proceeds go to the foundation. For golfers, the first Monday in August is the Tee Off for Drew Golf Tournament.

Melisa Patrick was the SU Magazine student intern for the spring semester. She will graduate in May 2010.