A Walk To Remember

The Lights for Little Lives Walk is no more than a few blocks, but every year it holds profound meaning while providing tangible financial support to families at their most urgent time of need.

For the 12th year, the Unforgettables, a nonprofit group which helps families who have lost a child pay for burial expenses, will light candles culminating the annual walk in Loma Linda.

Unforgettables founder Tim Evans invites community members to celebrate little lives lost with the walk between Ronald McDonald House and Campus Hill Church, where the candle lighting ceremonony will be held. Ceremonies begin Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

"It's a very sad milestone, but in our dozen years, we've given out money for 4,000 cases," said Evans, a retired chaplain with Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.

For more than a decade, the group has gathered at the Ronald McDonald House on Barton Road and Anderson Street. Families helped by the Unforgettables Foundation join in prayer and a dove releasing ceremony.

They then take the half-mile walk up Anderson to Campus Hill Church of Seventh-day Adventists on Hill Drive, where the ceremony continues. The names of the children lost throughout the year are read aloud.

Many of the children listed are from families who got help from the foundation, others are submitted by families who want to honor a youngster. They take them all, Evens said.

Tim, and his wife Sonya Evans, launched Unforgettables on Dec. 31, 1999. The organization helps families who have lost a child – infants to age 18 - and are unable to afford a proper burial.

Evans helped create the organization after watching several families, already grieving over the loss of a child, struggle under the weight of burial costs.

“That is really a pretty profound impact,” Evans said. “It’s a great honor that we’ve all been able to have a small part in helping so many families through the worst day of their lives. The families are grateful that someone cares about their grief and cares that they are struggling financially.”

Among the special honorees this year are Mike and Nancee Zeller, whose son Chad died 20 years ago in a bicycle accident at the age of 11. The Corona couple has tirelessly worked through the Chad Zeller Memorial Walk to emphasize bicycle safety and provide safety helmets to thousands of children.

The Zellers will receive the Little Life Saver Award, which honors the memory of Christopher Kohlmeier, who saved a child from drowning. He was killed in a traffic accident a few years later.