Ethan’s Smile Foundation to hold inaugural gala 1 year after Idaho student murders
The Chapin family’s memorial foundation will hold its first fundraising gala exactly one year after a University of Idaho home invasion attack killed student Ethan Chapin and three friends.
One year has passed since the slaying of four promising young University of Idaho students rocked the campus in Moscow, Idaho – and made shock waves across the country.
Now, the family of one of the victims is reflecting on the charitable work done in his honor.
The University of Idaho's Sigma Chi chapter, of which slain student Ethan Chapin was a member, has given the first memorial scholarship in his honor to his brother, Hunter. His parents are hosting a fundraising gala for their own scholarship fund on the one-year mark, and his triplet brother and sister are still studying at the school.
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Ethan Chapin's family honored at a Sigma Chi dinner the day before the slain triplet would have turned 21. His brother Hunter, a fellow member, received the organization's first memorial scholarship a year after it was endowed in Ethan's memory. Ethan's sister Maizie also attends the University of Idaho. (Garrett Britton/University of Idaho)
Ethan and Hunter, along with sister Maizie, are triplets whose 21st birthday was last month. All three enrolled at the university together, and both brothers joined Sigma Chi.
Their parents Stacy and Jim traveled from Washington state to Moscow, Idaho, last week. On Monday, exactly one year after the murders, the family is hosting a black-tie fundraising gala to help future students achieve their academic goals after Ethan's were cut short.
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The Chapin family pictured together in a photograph recovered from Ethan's computer, which his mother published Thursday evening. (Stacy Chapin)
The family also released a series of previously unshared photographs recovered from Ethan's computer – showing him enjoying a day on the boat, vacationing with family and more.
Ethan majored in sports and tourism management and would have graduated in the class of 2025. The university awarded him a posthumous degree at the commencement ceremony in the spring.
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Ethan Chapin salutes in an undated photo recovered from his computer. Monday marks one year since Chapin, his girlfriend Xana Kernodle and two of her housemates, Kaylee Goncalves and Maddie Mogen, were killed in a home invasion stabbing attack just steps from the campus. (Stacy Chapin)
In a surprise twist at the ceremony, the Sigma Chi Foundation also recognized Chapin's mother, Stacy Chapin, with an honor that had previously been reserved only for members and alumni.
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Stacy Chapin holds a plaque dedicated to the memory of her son, Ethan, a member of the University of Idaho's chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity. The organization has endowed a scholarship in his memory. (Garrett Britton/University of Idaho)
Her family was the charity's largest donor, when accounting for separate donations from Maizie and from Ethan's own checking account, helping Sigma Chi endow the fund so it can award scholarships annually going forward.
"He would've thought that was the greatest thing ever," Stacy Chapin told Fox News Digital.
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Triplets Maizie, Hunter and Ethan Chapin all began classes at the University of Idaho at the same time. (Stacy Chapin)
A Sigma Chi fraternity member will receive a $5,000 scholarship at the University of Idaho every year in perpetuity as a result, she said.
The Chapin triplets in an undated family photo recovered from Ethan Chapin's computer. All three triplets attended the University of Idaho together. (Stacy Chapin)
The fraternity established the Ethan Chapin Memorial Scholarship Fund just days after the slayings rocked the campus community, declaring they would present it to an undergraduate member once a year. So far, the chapter has raised more than $125,000.
Separately, the Chapin family has also established a memorial scholarship foundation in his honor, Ethan's Smile, to provide financial assistance for students from his hometown of Skagit Valley, Washington, attending the University of Idaho.
Ethan Chapin pictured in a doorway to the Sigma Chi fraternity house on Greek Row in Moscow, Idaho. The fraternity endowed a scholarship in his memory. (Stacy Chapin)
The university is also working on a memorial garden – which Stacy Chapin said will be designed by architecture students already on campus.
The parents met with those students when they were visiting last week, she said.
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"Jim and I gave the gift of education to our kids with the intent that they could ‘stand on their own two feet’ one day," Stacy Chapin wrote on Instagram Thursday, where she shared Ethan's old photos. "With that in mind, we created the Ethan’s Smile Foundation to provide scholarships to post-high school kids so that they can follow their dreams. Better yet, kids receive the scholarship in Ethan’s name, and we can’t think of a better way to honor him."
Very young versions of the Chapin triplets seen in one of Ethan's old photos. (Stacy Chapin)
The fraternity's house on Greek row is about a 200-yard walk from the King Road crime scene, where police found Ethan, his girlfriend Xana Kernodle and her two housemates, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, dead on Nov. 13, 2022.
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Brothers Hunter, left, and Ethan Chapin pose in Sigma Chi basketball jerseys. Hunter posted the photo to Instagram in a tribute to his brother. The two are part of a set of triplets attending the University of Idaho along with their sister Maizie. (Instagram)
After a weeks-long investigation, police arrested Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology Ph.D. student from the neighboring Washington State University, at his parents' house in Pennsylvania.
A judge entered not guilty pleas on his behalf in May on four charges of first-degree murder and another of felony burglary. He could face the death penalty if convicted. He is being held without bail at the Latah County Jail in Moscow, Idaho.
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