Images and audio courtesy of ABC News
The local family, still grieving the loss of their son after he and his friends were murdered in Idaho, shares for the first time what they’re doing to remember him.
Jim and Stacy Chapin tell ABC News they’ve had countless strangers come up to them to share their memories of their son, Ethan – like the University of Idaho graduate they say tried to give them his track national championship ring, who started the way Mrs. Chapin says many have begun. “’You don’t know me,’ he goes, ‘I’m a local, and Ethan was…he was a friend of mine, but he treated me like I belonged here,’” Mrs. Chapin says, “He was so touched, he just said, ‘Everytime I showed up, he included me in a volleyball game, he took me out in the boat, we surfed…I was always welcome when Ethan was around.’”
The Chapins have shown incredible strength, but it’s still not easy for them, especially as they muddle through a year of firsts without Ethan there, including the upcoming 21st birthday he shares, as a triplet, with his brother and sister, Hunter and Mazie. Jim Chapin says, “Stacy and I get up, we watch the sunrise, and drink our coffee, and cry in your coffee. It’s just hard. I mean, he was such a huge part of our family, and we just miss him.”
The Chapins started the Ethan’s Smile Foundation, which is selling tulip bulbs through Tulip Valley Farms just like the ones he used to plant in the Skagit Valley, which grow up yellow and white. They’re holding an event on Easter Sunday at Tulip Valley Farms, the proceeds of which will go to the foundation.
They hope eventually the foundation will raise enough money to send a graduate from Conway to the University of Idaho on a full, 4-year scholarship. In the meantime, the Chapins have sent money to the scholarship funds set up in the names of Ethan Chapin, his girlfriend, Xana Kernodle, and their friends, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen.
