A rose in her memory
On April 26, 2012, Erin Julian collapsed to the ground on the Indiana State campus.
She was a freshman and had planned on completing a degree in Elementary Education when an aneurysm struck her down that day. She was flown from Terre Haute to Indianapolis for an emergency surgery that was ultimately unsuccessful. Erin died on April 27, ten days before her 19th birthday.
On Thursday, May 2, visitation for Erin was held at Nass and Sons Funeral Home in Huntingburg. It opened at 2 p.m. and a line formed as people began to show up. Her friends, family, classmates and so many others she had touched during her life came to pay respects; to say goodbye. So many people showed up and the line became so long that it took two hours to reach Erin and her family.
The community support shouldn’t have been surprising; Erin’s mom, Becky, a teacher at Southridge, and her dad, Matt, have lived in Huntingburg their entire lives. The family also has deep roots in Salem United Church of Christ. Becky’s dad, Kenneth Scherry, served as pastor there before he retired.
The family is part of Huntingburg.
All of these people paid their respects and left gifts for the family. So many gifts and donations, the overwhelmed family decided to pursue establishing an endowment in Erin’s name —the Erin Julian Memorial Fund.
The Dubois County Community Foundation informed them they would need to place $10,000 into a fund to create an annual $500 grant for non-profit organizations in the community.
They were close but needed to raise a bit more to meet that goal.
Leslie Petry, Erin’s sister, began to make plans to raise the money for the fund. She considered the normal routes for fund-raising until Andrea and Aaron Peters from Family Roots Nursery offered to provide Knock Out® Roses for sale to raise the remaining amount to fund the new endowment. Leslie was struck by this serendipitous opportunity.
You see, Erin’s full name is Erin Rose Julian.
Leslie is now taking calls for people to purchase $25 certificates for the roses. “They take the certificate in to Family Roots to redeem the rose-bush,” Leslie explained, “in time for planting them between April 21 to May 12. Right around Erin’s birthday.”
Leslie is sure they will sell enough roses to fund the endowment. In addition, the Huntingburg IGA, where Erin worked before leaving for college, is providing all the fixings for a cookout in front of the Huntingburg location on May 4.
“Erin’s kindness touched so many lives,” Leslie said. “As soon as I posted this on Facebook, I received a personal message from someone in North Carolina that said she couldn’t get a rosebush, but she wanted to donate.”
Leslie was perplexed. What would cause this person to want to donate? “This woman told me she had only met Erin one time and it was a long time ago,” Leslie said, “but Erin showed her such kindness that it impacted her life so much that it changed how this woman viewed other people forever.”
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ERIN JULIAN MEMORIAL FUND
In an effort to honor Erin’s memory and keep her spirit alive and well, we are trying to raise money for the Erin Julian Memorial Fund. We are doing this by selling certificates for knock out rose bushes for $25 each. The certificates can be redeemed at Family Roots Nursery anytime between April 21st and May 12th. The end goal is to have a sustainable fund that will donate annually in Erin’s name to various non-profit groups in our community. We see this as a three-fold benefit:
- Giving back to our community that has so generously supported our family in so many ways
- Keeping Erin’s name out there so that her sweet memory will live long after she left us
- Each person that contributes will have their own rose bush to remind them of Erin Rose.
Words can’t express our appreciation for your support and generosity. THANK YOU!!
Checks should be made payable to The Dubois County Community Foundation.
Please call Leslie at 630-5956 with any questions.
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