By Maddie Augustine
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OMAHA, Neb. (KETV) — The Schopen family is hosting the Rylan J. Schopen Memorial Monster Bash this weekend to honor their daughter and raise funds for grief counseling services, marking ten years since her passing.
Rylan Schopen would have been 16 this year. Rylan has five siblings, but her family said she always found a way to make her presence known.
“She’s always in the center and she was always smiling, cheerful,” Cael Schopen, one of Rylan’s older brothers, said.
Rylan was born with special needs, and Gary Schopen, Rylan’s father, said she needed constant physical and medical support. The family said they ensured she was always involved and lived life to the fullest.
“We would go to the zoo, we’d go there quite often. And she loved, you know, so many animals,” Gary said. “She really grasped the aquarium. So we would sit in there and we would be in there for hours just watching the fish and everything.”
Turtles quickly became a favorite, Michelle Schopen, Rylan’s step-mother, said she even had a light-up one that displayed the stars and moon at night.
The family said she also loved to spend time with her siblings, even just lying on the couch with her brother Cael or her dad.
On the morning of Sept. 26, 2015, Rylan was rushed to the hospital. Doctors believe Rylan suffered a massive seizure and declared her brain dead three days later.
“That’s when Gary and her mother, Rachel, had to make the decision to, to, donate her organs,” Michelle said.
“October 1st is the last time when we got to see her before she went in the elevator doors or an elevator, and then they closed,” Gary said.
It was just two days before Rylan’s sixth birthday.
“My initial thought was, you know, get the kids into grief counseling. And because this is huge, I mean, there’s she was five. That’s so it’s unnatural for someone to die at such a young age,” Michelle said.
Michelle said she reached out to Collective for Hope – then called Teddy Bear Hollow – but she said the programming was booked out for months.
Now ten years later, knowing the need for grief counseling in the Omaha metro and wanting to honor their daughter, the family is hosting the Rylan J. Schopen Memorial Monster Bash.
The name is inspired by Gary’s nickname for his daughter.
“I always called her daddy’s little monster,” Gary Schopen said.
The theme of the event also represents Rylan’s love for Halloween and trick-or-treating.
“She would come home with this big, pillowcase full of candy and stuff, and I always got ‘told no, no, daddy not yours,'” Gary said.
Remembering how important grief counseling was for their family, Michelle said the event is an effort to raise funds for Collective for Hope. It’s an organization that provides free grief counseling for children and people as young as 3 years old. Now, Michelle said, this is a chance for other kids to help one another.
“It’s a way for them to have fun and give back to their community and give to not just the community as a whole, but specifically to other kids because the Collective for Hope has such a wide range of ages that they serve,” Michelle said.
It’s a service the organization said is constantly needed.
“Grief is a very universal but also a unique thing to everybody. And if there’s, you know, the collective for Hope, we specialize in creating that brave, safe space where you can come together in community,” Cliff McEvoy, executive director at Collective for Hope, said. “We are touching the lives of over 5000 members of our community on an annual basis. and that’s grown by about 2000, in the past two years.”
Gary said it’s humbling to know an effort done in his daughter’s name can help other children and carry on Rylan’s legacy.
“Never-ending hope that no matter life’s complications that you have, you can enjoy life and be love and show compassion,” Gary said.
The event is Saturday from 2-5 p.m. in Bellevue at 1406 Fort Crook Rd S.
The Monster Bash will have Live Music by Cover Me Badd, Face Painting, Balloon Animals, Trunk-or-Treating, and a Photo Booth to capture all the wonderful costumes, plus other activities and a grilled cheese food truck in Bellevue.
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