Remembering Reese- Annual Fundraiser for Students

For those of you who are learning about Reese for the first time, you can read her story here .

It’s a hot Friday afternoon in late August and my phone starts to vibrate. I grab it and check the notifications. “Alice’s mom”, “Theo’s mom”, “Lauren’s dad” light up on the screen. I look at the clock and immediately know it’s time. It’s the time of the summer that I hadn’t prepared for as I imagined some of the best moments in parenthood. The moment that teacher assignments are released.

It’s the time of the summer that fills me with nostalgic excitement. The memories of opening up the mailbox as a fourth grader, spying the envelope to reveal the name of my teacher, Ms. Ries (Ironic?) come flooding back. I struck the jackpot as teacher assignments are concerned (side note: I remember her calling us her “Ries’s Pieces” that year. It’s still one of my favorite candy to date). I immediately wondered if my friends were in class with me? Slowly I worked up the courage to call using our landline, fearing that my friend’s parents would pick up and I’d die of embarrassment having to speak a word to an adult as a painfully shy child. Kids these days have it so much easier.

My mind snaps back to the present day when I get another text asking who Rhett has for a teacher? The small bubble of excitement bursts inside of me when a match is made, securing a friend in his class. This piece of knowledge allows my heart to rest a bit easier knowing he will have a friendly face greeting them on the first day of a new school year. My mind grapples with the fact that Rogen doesn’t get this experience this year as he starts middle school. After six years, he’s off to do new things. “How can that be? A middle schooler?”, I wonder.

My mind then catches the prick of pain my heart feels when I ponder who Reese would have gotten for her fourth grade teacher this year? I wonder whose parent would be texting me with curiosity if our red headed, freckled faced girl would be classmates with their child? No texts received for the fifth year in a row. A realization is made, another collateral loss in life after death. Grief is funny like that, it sneaks up on you even if you've experienced something before. I've made it four years without being bothered by not getting texts on this day about Reese but this year is different. I feel the depth of this pain often and I’ve become skilled at flipping those thoughts on their head but not before feeling the gravity of her absence yet again. If I turn this realization upside down, I can say that while Reese isn’t assigned a teacher, she is in every single one of those classrooms. Whether her classmates have come to realize it yet or not, she is there. For the last four years Reese’s kindness has secured a seat, front and center in each of those rooms. Let’s make her fourth grade year another to remember.

As a reminder from last year: Our long term goal is to create an outdoor classroom (you can read more about it here) to be completed in Reese’s 5th grade year (2025/26), a goal of raising $20,000 in total for that classroom. Dedicating it to her as a send off of sorts as she would begin her journey into middle school. In 2023, we raised $7,300 for this project. For the next two years, we will fundraise for this long term goal but each year will have another component, benefiting her peers in the present.

It’s important to us that her peers be impacted each year. This year we should be celebrating her 10th birthday in November but we reluctantly flip that realization on its head and will gift each of her 150 classmates a book from this fall’s book fair valued up to $10. Rogen, Rhett & Maeda LOVE book fair time each year and I’m positive Reese would too. It’s a day that I willingly send them to school with some spending money because books open minds and we need as many of those as we can get. However, I also know that not every student has access to funds to purchase books and it’s another unnecessary reminder that life is unfair. Reese’s legacy, from day one, has been kindness and generosity. What better way to celebrate a beautiful girl with the biggest heart than to give the gift of kindness? Therefore approximately $1500 of the $9000 goal we have this year will go towards books of all kinds given to children of all kinds.

Reese, our love for you knows no bounds. Thanks for making this world a kinder place.

Love,

Your family