Did you know there is a scholarship program for kids whose parents have been severely or fatally injured in a workplace accident?

I didn’t know about it until I needed it…

I only know about Kids’ Chance because I was a recipient of the scholarship when I was a student at Purdue University. Kids’ Chance provides post-secondary and trade-school scholarships to children of workers who have been severely or fatally injured in a workplace accident.

My dad was tragically killed in a car accident while delivering seed corn for our family business.

I vividly remember receiving the news.

It is difficult to explain the physical pain that can come with devastating emotional news. For me, it was the most physical pain I have ever experienced from an emotional event. Grief wasn’t just something happening in my thoughts. I felt it in my entire body.

Somehow, life was supposed to continue.

I was a college student with final papers to write, final exams to take, classes to attend, and a future to figure out… all while unexpectedly grieving my dad’s death.

My brain could barely function. My thoughts weren’t coherent. I felt like I was living in a horrible fog. I would sit down to study and struggle to process what I was reading. Things that normally would have been simple suddenly felt incredibly difficult.

Grief doesn’t follow a convenient timeline. There were times when I was walking across Purdue’s campus, even the following year, when I would suddenly start crying. Out of nowhere. Tears would stream down my face. I would walk into the bathroom near my class, wash my face, take a drink of water, take a slow, deep breath, and then go to class.

Then, I would try to learn and retain what I was learning.

I wasn’t an adult with years of life experience and financial stability.

I was a college kid trying to get decent grades so I could build my resume, graduate, get a job, and eventually pay back the student loans I had taken out for college.

Suddenly, the person who had been part of my vision for my future was gone.

If I got married someday, who would walk me down the aisle? My dad and I would have had so much fun doing the Father Daughter Dance. He loved a dance floor at a wedding! He wouldn’t even be there with me when I graduate college.

What if I have kids someday? My dad won’t get to hold them. They won’t even know my dad.

Not only my future, but I thought about my mom and my brothers and how their lives were impacted. All of this was swirling around my head while grieving and somehow studying… wanting to do well because I felt my professional and financial future counted on it.

Money should be the last thing on someone’s mind when something like this happens, but bills still have to get paid. I guarantee the student loan companies don’t care why they aren’t getting their money; they want their money.

College is expensive. Bills still exist. Tuition doesn’t stop because your heart has been broken. Student loans don’t disappear because you are grieving.

At that age, I was already asking questions about how I was going to pay for college. I knew I didn’t like the idea of interest rates or that it would take me years to pay for my education.

So when I received a Kids’ Chance scholarship, it mattered.

It didn’t fix what happened. It didn’t bring my dad back. It didn’t make grief easier, but it helped ease one burden from an already impossibly heavy season.

Sometimes that is what help looks like. It doesn’t have to fix everything. Rather, it simply makes one part of an unbearable situation a little more manageable.

I am grateful that people thought about kids like me and chose to donate money to a scholarship fund for children they didn’t know. I am grateful an organization existed that understood when a parent is severely or fatally injured at work, the effects don’t stop with the injured worker. The children are affected, too.

This is a scholarship I wish wasn’t needed, but it is. People need to know about it and share it with others because it’s an unexpected need you wish you never qualified for, BUT are grateful it’s there if you do need it.

Unfortunately, workplace injuries and fatalities happen. When they do, children can be left trying to navigate grief, major life changes, and the financial realities that come with them.

If you know a student who may qualify for this type of support, please share the information with their family. Kids’ Chance provides scholarships for post-secondary and trade-school education to eligible children of workers who have been severely or fatally injured in a workplace accident.

Learn more about Kids’ Chance here.

If you are in a position to donate, consider helping.

You may never meet the student your donation helps, but you might make it a little easier for a kid who is trying to keep moving forward after their world has been turned upside down.

I know because I was that kid.