SOUTH BEND — Larry and Sherry Swank beam with pride as they talk about plans to pay education expenses for children in need. It's a far different scene than four and a half years ago when their life was turned upside down.

In December 2003, their 23-month-old son Jaxson was killed when his nanny accidentally backed over him with an SUV in the family's driveway.

"The question I had was, 'Why?' I'm still not sure I have the answer, but what I do know is that God in Heaven has a bigger plan than any of us understand. My faith tells me that. That's gotten me through the tough times," Larry said.

Part of that bigger plan led them to set up a foundation in Jaxson's name. It will pay a portion of the education expenses for students beginning from the time they're in pre-school all the way through college.

"As you're going through the loss of a child, our thought process was, 'What can we do to continue to remember Jaxson'," Sherry said.
"We have two younger children. Our four-year-old was six weeks old at the time Jaxson was killed. Lilly only knows him by us talking about him and our thoughts were, 'How can we find a way for Lily and Chloe to know him'?"

Jaxson would have eventually attended Stanley Clark School in South Bend. Working with the school, they've established criteria and will pick two students this fall.

"We'll follow them through pre-school, grade school, undergrad based on criteria we set up," Larry said. "When they become responsible citizens, there's criteria like grades, citizenship, integrity that they will have to continually prove to qualify for the endowment. And 25% is what we're planning to do. That includes tuition, clothing, books and supplies and other things that go to school."

The foundation is being managed by the couple and their three oldest sons. Even though almost five years have passed since the accident, getting the scholarship foundation ready to accept students this fall has been harder than the couple imagined.

"Having had thoughts for so long about what to do, putting it together has been exciting, but it's been... it's opened up a lot of wounds and been a little more difficult than I had anticipated," Sherry said.

It's the reason it took the couple this long to award the scholarships, even though the foundation was established shortly after Jaxson's death.

In the midst of the pain, the couple says there have been positives that have come from their nightmare. They say the foundation has been a group healing process for them and their children.

"They've all just been right there. They've been involved in the planning for the fun fair that's coming up, in the mission statement for the foundation, offering suggestions, being there to support us when we were down," Larry said.

"It's been heartwarming to watch the spirit of them working together in something that Sherry and I have put together and have carried with us now for four and a half years. Seeing it come to fruition and seeing so many people helping to make that happen."

This weekend's fun fair is the couple's way of officially kicking off the project with a fund raising goal of $25,000. They'll add that to the $20,000 already in the foundation to fund the scholarships. The fair's costs have been underwritten, so all the money raised Saturday will go to the scholarships.

While they're starting with just two students this year, the goal is to add new students each year and expand the project to other schools and possibly other cities.

"Like a pebble being thrown into the middle of a pond and let the ripples go out from there. Let us hope it takes us wherever He wants us to go," Larry said.

"It will be wonderful to provide assistance to as many children as possible. If that's all over the United States, that would be a wonderful thing," Sherry added.

The Swanks say the scholarship project will be successful in their eyes if years from now, students return to them successful in their careers.

"If they've gone through school, graduated from college, come back to us and said, 'You placed the emphasis on pre-school for us. What a foundation you gave us to build from. And here we are, we've graduated from college and we want to help with the foundation," Sherry said.

The tag line for the foundation is "For a child lost, a gift is given." The Swanks say they hope other parents appreciate the gift they have been given in their children.

"Love them and do all you can for them and take the time. Use every day because you don't know what's going to happen to you or your child. You don't know what tomorrow brings. You don't know what five minutes from now will bring," Larry said.