This article is about someone who attended the Indianapolis Teen Challenge and who died shortly thereafter. I post this in case anyone is looking for her or for info on her:
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The Herald & Review (Decatur, IL)A memory aidAfter teen's death, mother develops a memorial product to help fund Erin's PlaceBy HUEY FREEMAN, H&R Staff Writer
May 7, 2006DECATUR - When Holly Mowry was grieving the loss of her 17-year-old daughter, Erin, she noticed her other children were comforted by bringing photographs and notes to the grave. Erin, who was killed in an auto accident Dec. 30, 2002, left a deep impression on those who knew her.
Like many teenagers, Erin went through a period of drug abuse and failing grades, which landed her in a Teen Challenge home for girls in Indianapolis.
Teen Challenge helped straighten Erin out, so much so that she earned straight A's in her last semester in high school, was a leader in her church and signed up to enter the Marine Corps.
Tim and Bea Walsh, an Indianapolis couple who took Erin into their home after she left Teen Challenge, were so moved by her life and death that they started a ministry to help other young women. It is called Erin's Place Ministries.
The idea is to establish a Christian home for young women, 16 years old and older, where they can learn to live successfully on their own.
However, the Walshes, who founded the ministry two months after Erin's death, have not been able to raise sufficient money to purchase a building.
Holly Mowry, a close friend of the Walshes, was troubled by the inability to get the funding for Erin's Place.
During one of her daily prayerful walks, Mowry had the idea of producing a weatherproof picture frame, in order to leave photos at grave sites that will not be ruined or blown away. In this way, she could help finance the ministry.
"This is a grieving tool," Mowry said. "A portion of the proceeds will go to the ministry."
A former nurse who works with her husband in their rental property business, Mowry began investigating whether there was a product like it on the market. All she could find was a small, flimsy plastic frame on a short spike that would not last more than a few days in this climate.
She went to a nearby factory to ask for advice.
"You have to start somewhere," Mowry said.
A man at the factory recommended that she call an engineer, Don Morr. You might say she found the right guy.
Mowry worked with Morr, creating the drawings for polycarbonate plastic frames on sturdy, foot-long spikes, with rubber seals around the frames that are easily removed.
"Don made the blueprints," Mowry said. "He did all the drawings to do the tooling. His brother, Dave, set up my Web site. They donated all their time."
They contacted a factory in Ogden, from which they learned about a factory in Florida that performed the kind of work they desired.
She had to spend more than $50,000 altogether, including manufacturing expenses and patent attorney fees. Every time they needed the money, somehow it was there.
At a time when one bill was due, they were bidding against several other prospective buyers on a house they hoped to rehab and resell. The Mowrys had the winning bid.
The frames are being sold in groups of three, with each package containing one frame for a 3
1/2-by-5-inch photo and two that hold wallet-sized pictures. Each package contains a card with messages from Erin's family to her, a photo of Erin's grave - with the picture frames and family photos in flower vases and a poem written by a friend.
Warning: the card is extremely moving.
The card also contains suggestions for uses for the frames.
"You can put pictures on either side, or put a picture with a note on the back," Mowry said, "which is what we did at Erin's grave."
Mowry has been distributing the frames, which she calls Erin's Bouquets, for retail sale at local funeral homes and florists.
She hopes an ad in a funeral industry magazine will spur nationwide sales.
Mowry, who relishes her new role as an inventor, said she never wanted to become a saleswoman. "Guess what?" she said. "I'm beating the streets, selling them."
While the original idea was to open a home in Indiana, now the Mowrys and Walshes say they would like to have the first home in Decatur with another in Indiana later.
Bea Walsh said it makes sense to have the first home in Decatur, especially because Teen Challenge, a faith-based program with an excellent record of helping young people, has recently opened a home for girls here.
Walsh, who was program director of the Teen Challenge home in Indianapolis when Erin lived there, said it is sometimes tough for girls to make it on their own after they leave the sheltered environment.
The Walshes invited Erin to live with them in their home for several months, after she left the Teen Challenge center, 10 months before she died.
Bea Walsh said Erin did not want to return to Decatur at that time, partly because she wanted to stay away from her peers who used drugs.
"She wanted to start over," Walsh said.
Erin came back to Decatur in June 2002. She worked at a building supply store and planned to go to college. To finance her education, she joined the Marine Corps. As she prepared for basic training, scheduled to begin two months after her accident, she worked out with the Marines. The Marine emblem is etched on her tombstone.
Mowry said the whole idea of selling the frames is to fund a ministry that will help girls like Erin succeed.
"I want to see these kids with their heads screwed on straight, productive, using the gifts God has given them," she said. "I just need to sell thousands of these."
Huey Freeman can be reached at http://www.erinsbouquet.com[/li]
[li]Send $49.95 for three frames to Erin's Bouquet, Box 77, Elwin IL 62532.[/li][/list]
Herald & Review photos/ Lisa Morrison
Holly Mowry straightens the family photos surrounding her daughter's grave. She hopes that others will also receive comfort in the ability to safely leave notes and photos at the graves of their loved ones.
The grave of Erin Mowry, who died in an automobile accident, is still visited often by friends and family members.
Copyright, 2006, Herald & Review, Decatur, IL