Parents with newborn children hope for many things – they hope that their child will be smart, well adjusted, or even adorable. But for most parents, what they wish for most is for their child to be healthy. Two and a half-year-old Kalahan Emery was just that. With a sweet voice and wavy red hair, he was the perfect kid. But in March of 2001, he suddenly passed away in his sleep, leaving his parents shocked. After searching for answers and finding nothing, Kalahan’s case was classified as Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood, or SUDC.
SUDC is the sudden and unexpected death of a child over the age of 12 months, which remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation is conducted. SUDC is only given as a cause of death when all other possible causes are ruled out. While many have yet to hear about this excruciating experience, it’s affecting more and more children each year.
To help to deal with his grief, Kraig Emery, Kalahan’s father, decided to start a memorial fund for his son, the Kalahan K. Emery Memorial Fund. Although his intentions were good, Kraig had trouble stirring up interest in his organization.
Corey Szepan, a senior graphic design student at Plymouth State University, met Kraig in 2003 working at a summer camp and agreed to come on board as the Volunteer Designer, helping to create a website and other materials to give out to people to raise awareness on the issue. “When Kraig was telling me about it, he had no brochures, no website, basically no way of marketing. I came on board, helped him with that, and we’ve been steamrolling ever since.”
Although Szepan never met Kalahan, once hearing his story he was immediately drawn to the organization. Since becoming involved, Kalahan’s Fund has been raising money, but more importantly raising awareness for the cause. “It’s not about money, it’s not about figures, it’s getting people to know about what SUDC is and how it affects children across the world,” said Szepan.
Kalahan’s Fund takes part in many different fundraisers around Concord to help raise awareness. Their biggest event is “Kal’s Auction For An Answer,” an annual auction that will be taking place on October 14 from 6-9 p.m. at the Common Man of Concord. “We wanted something that we’re known for with our fund that every year we can do, and we wanted something big. Last year we raised over $2,000, and we hope to do that again this year, but again, money is not our priority,” said Szepan.
By attending the auction, people will not only learn about SUDC, they can also bid on amazing prizes. All of the items are donated from local businesses, and the amount of items up for winning continues to grow. As of right now, some of the prizes include tickets to the Baseball Hall of Fame, a Manchester Monarchs game, ski passes for Pats Peak, a Mike Timlin autographed picture, restaurant gift certificates, museum tickets, and passes to parks like Water Country and Funspot.
Even though raising money is not their main goal, it’s a crucial part of their organization. All of the profits go to SUDC funds that do tests to try to determine the cause of SUDC. “If they can find what causes this, then that will be huge within itself, because then you can start looking for a cure. But it’s baby steps from here; first letting people know what it’s about, getting the word out about it, and then raising money to find a cause. That’s what we hope to do in the future, but it’s baby steps right now,” said Szepan, hopeful.
For more information about Kalahan’s Fund or to find out other details about the auction, including an updated list of items up for bid, go to www.kalahansfund.org.