The San Antonio Angel of Hope Foundation was officially
established as a non-profit organization on November 8, 2004. However, the
initiative to bring an Angel of Hope to San Antonio began in September 2003.
The Foundation consists of six board members, five parents who have lost
children, and a non-voting representative from the University of the Incarnate
Word.
The following articles appeared in the San Antonio
Express-News and describes how this project began. Some of the
information is dated due to changes in the project:
Angel in the
making
Web Posted: 03/23/2004 12:00 AM CST
Rosemary Barnes
San Antonio Express-News
Roger and Marcy
Bousum were inconsolable after the sudden death of their youngest
daughter, Katie, in 2000.
The first year after
the 19-year-old's death in a car crash, the Bousums could find refuge
from their overwhelming despair only in their sleep.
"I'd get home from
work and go straight to bed. ... I don't remember that whole year
because I slept so much," Marcy Bousum said. "It was a coping mechanism
that came very naturally."
As his grief
softened, Roger Bousum, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel stationed
at Randolph AFB for 11 years, knew what he had to do to help himself and
other bereaved parents.
The Bousums recently
launched a fund-raising campaign to erect an angel statue in San Antonio
to memorialize deceased children and provide parents, siblings and other
loved ones with an outlet for their grief.
"I think this is a
space that San Antonio needs because so many of the city's children have
died in car accidents and drive-by shootings and due to illnesses,"
Roger Bousum said. "We're still looking for comfort, for something to
make us feel better."
The Bousums got the
idea for the statue from Richard Paul Evans' best-selling novel, "The
Christmas Box," published in 1993. In the story, an elderly woman mourns
at the base of an angel monument in Salt Lake City for the 3-year-old
daughter she lost many years earlier.
Known as the Angel
of Hope, the bronze monument depicts a child angel with its arms
stretched upward as if waiting to be picked up by a parent. The angel is
4 feet, 3 inches tall with a wingspan wider than 5 feet.
Marcy Bousum felt an
immediate connection with the story because her late daughter not only
collected angels, but she also was known as "everyone's angel" among her
friends at Judson High School, where she graduated in 1999.
"Katie was an
intelligent, responsible, happy, friendly person who always put others
first," said Marcy Bousum, 52, a librarian for the San Antonio School
District. "She would love the angel memorial."
Katie died around
12:20 a.m. July 5, 2000, when the car she was riding in spun out of
control and slammed into a utility pole on Interstate 35. The driver
also died at the scene. No alcohol was involved, according to police
records.
Mandy
Bousum-Jackson, Katie's big sister and only sibling, said she hopes the
angel memorial gives her parents the peace and closure they're searching
for.
"If they can also
help others through the grieving process, that would be great," said
Bousum-Jackson, 25.
The Bousums are
hoping the community responds to their campaign in the generous spirit
for which San Antonians are known.
"We want to pique
the interest that is out there for a memorial of this kind," Roger
Bousum said.
Although Evans wrote
of a fictional stone angel statue, hundreds of grieving parents traveled
to Salt Lake City to view the statue. But there wasn't one.
The reaction to his
book inspired Evans to have a child angel statue created and erected in
his hometown of Salt Lake City. He also donated a copy of the statue to
Oklahoma City as a memorial for children killed in the 1995 bombing of
the federal building there.
Evans unwittingly
started a trend. Many of the grieving parents who saw the statues
decided their communities needed one.
Today, 45 statues
have been erected nationwide, including in Houston and Bedford, with
more than 100 in the works in the United States and around the globe,
said Lisa Van Valkenburg, statue coordinator for the Christmas Box House
International.
Evans started the
nonprofit agency to handle angel statue orders, but it also builds
shelters for abused children in Utah.
In addition to the
$12,500 cost of the statue, the San Antonio campaign must raise $3,000
to $6,000 for a monument base and to acquire property for the memorial.
Marcy Bousum hopes
the statue might be placed on donated property on the grounds of an
established institution, such as a university, hospital or city park,
where there would be ongoing maintenance for years to come.
Those interested can
donate at any Broadway Bank, with payment made out to "The Angel Statue
Fund," account No. 0461520. For information about the angel, contact
Roger Bousum at RBOUSUM@satx.rr.com.
The
following article appeared in the San Antonio Express-News.
Grace of Giving: Angelic aspirations
Web Posted:
12/10/2005 12:00 AM CST
Laura Jesse
Express-News Staff Writer
Marcy and Roger Bousum want to give bereaved parents a
present of their own: a public but sacred place where they can
seek solace and memorialize their children who have died.
The Bousums' 19-year-old daughter, Katie, was killed in
2000 when the car in which she was riding spun out of control
and slammed into a utility pole.
Three years later, the couple started a campaign to raise
nearly $35,000 to purchase and erect an Angel of Hope statue, a
4-foot-3-inch bronze statue of an angel with her arms
outstretched as if waiting to be picked up.
The angel will be tucked on the campus of the University
of the Incarnate Word near the grotto and within hearing
distance of the San Antonio River.
"This area seemed peaceful, serene and safe — in that the
statue will be taken care of here," said Marcy Bousum, a
librarian with the San Antonio Independent School District.
Although the site and professional services involved have
been donated, the Bousums are still $22,000 away from their
goal.
The nonprofit organization started by the couple, San
Antonio Angel of Hope Foundation, is among the many nonprofit
agencies the Express-News is featuring in its annual Grace of
Giving series, which runs daily through Christmas.
The money needed would pay for a base for the statue,
construction materials, landscaping and labor to complete the
memorial.
The statue would provide a much-needed place in the city
for the public to memorialize children who have died. Parents
can go to the cemetery, as the Bousums go to Katie's grave at
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
But Roger Bousum, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel,
realizes not all parents live in the same city as their child's
grave.
"And we had a couple call who said they had a
miscarriage," Marcy Bousum added. "So some people don't even
have graves to visit."
For some parents, Roger Bousum added, going to the
cemetery is just too painful.
"So they can come here," he said.
Roger Bousum learned about the angel statue in Richard
Paul Stevens' book "The Christmas Box," a gift he received after
his daughter's death.
In the book, an elderly woman mourns the death of her
3-year-old daughter at an angel statue in Salt Lake City.
After hundreds of grieving parents traveled to the city to
find the statue, which existed only in the book, Stevens' group,
the Christmas Box House International, commissioned the first
statue for Salt Lake City in 1994.
Since then 61 statues have been dedicated in the United
States, six more have been ordered, at least 50 more groups are
trying to raise the money for a statue and two international
contacts have been made, said Lisa Van Valkenburg, statue
coordinator for the Christmas Box House International.
A vigil is held at each memorial every year at 7 p.m. Dec.
6, the date of the little girl's death in the book. There is a
moment of silence and people place white flowers at the statue.
No matter how long it takes to raise the money, Roger
Bousum said it's most important for bereaved parents to know the
statue is there for them.
"Every day we look in the obituaries and we feel for and
send cards to the families that have lost children, just to let
them know there is someone who has been through it," he said.
"To let people know that this will happen, that's important to
us as well."
Tax-deductible donations made out to "The Angel Statue
Fund" can be deposited at any Broadway Bank to account No.
0461520. For more information, contact Roger Bousum at RBOUSUM@satx.rr.com.
ljesse@express-news.net |
