When summer begins to fade and a new school year approaches, families everywhere begin preparing for a season of fresh starts. Backpacks are filled, school supplies are purchased, and children look ahead to new teachers, new classrooms, and new possibilities.
For many families, it is a season of anticipation. For grieving parents, it can also be one of the most painful reminders of what is missing. It is in that space that The Empty Porch Project exists.
Before our foundation became involved, The Empty Porch Project was already being carried forward through Mason’s Movement Foundation, created by Amanda in loving memory of her son, Mason. Mason passed away before Benjamin, and it was through Amanda’s lived experience that this initiative first took shape—a way to honor children who are no longer physically present, and to reach parents walking through the same devastating absence.
Through The Empty Porch Project, care packages are sent to bereaved parents in loving memory of their children. Each box is a quiet acknowledgment that their child is remembered, their name is not forgotten, and their grief is seen.
The name itself reflects a reality many grieving parents know too well. There is an emptiness that remains—a porch, a doorway, a space that once held the daily presence of a child, now marked by silence.
We understand that silence because we live within it too.
Each year, The Empty Porch Project is paired with Benjamin’s Backpacks, our initiative that provides school supplies to children in need as they prepare for a new school year. One initiative supports children stepping into a new beginning. The other holds space for children whose beginnings were cut short.
At first glance, these two efforts may seem separate. In truth, they are deeply connected. They reflect the full spectrum of what we carry: the desire to support children as they grow, and the need to honor children who are no longer here to grow with us.
Over time, Mason’s Movement Foundation and Benjamin Benefit Foundation have come together in this shared work. What began through Amanda’s leadership with The Empty Porch Project became a natural place of connection when our paths crossed through shared loss.
A few weeks after Benjamin passed away, I received a message from Amanda. She had already been walking this journey—navigating life after the loss of her son, Mason, and continuing the work of honoring him through service.
I wasn’t ready to respond. Grief narrows your world in ways that are hard to explain. But something about her message stayed with me, and eventually I reached out. I am deeply grateful that I did.
What began as a message between two grieving mothers became a friendship rooted in understanding that few people ever truly share. It is a bond formed not only through loss, but through the ongoing choice to turn that loss into something that can serve others.
Through that connection, our organizations began to walk alongside one another. The Empty Porch Project became a shared effort—an extension of Mason’s legacy, and eventually a place where Benjamin’s memory also now lives in service.
Every care package sent through The Empty Porch Project carries more than items inside. It carries acknowledgement. It carries memory. It carries the simple but profound message that a child’s life mattered and continues to matter.
And it carries something else too: connection. Because while grief can isolate, it can also connect.
I often think about Mason and Benjamin. Two little boys who never had the chance to grow into the lives imagined for them, yet whose lives continue to shape so much good in the world. In a way I cannot fully explain, I believe their spirits are still part of this work—not absent from it, but present in a way that continues to bring people together, to soften hearts, and to create space for compassion.
As we move into another season of preparing both Benjamin’s Backpacks and The Empty Porch Project, we are reminded that service takes many forms. Sometimes it looks like placing school supplies into the hands of a child ready to begin a new year. Sometimes it looks like placing a care package on the porch of a parent who will never again pack a backpack for their child.
Both matter. Both are acts of love. And both are made possible by a community that continues to choose compassion, year after year.
We are deeply grateful for Mason’s Movement Foundation and for the partnership that has grown from shared experience and shared purpose.
And we are equally grateful for every person who helps carry these initiatives forward. Together, we remember. Together, we serve. Together, we ensure that no child—and no child’s memory—is ever forgotten.