Parents of slain University of Idaho student honor son's legacy with "Ethan's Smile" tulip mix
The family of 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, one of four college students brutally stabbed to death in a house near the University of Idaho last November, has found a unique way to keep his memory alive: through a tulip field north of Seattle.
A tulip mix, appropriately named "Ethan's Smile," was created by Tulip Valley Farms, through friends who knew him through the annual local tulip festival. Now, the mix named for the University of Idaho freshman will benefit other students via a foundation set up in his memory.
The white and yellow tulips in the mix symbolize Ethan's bright and welcoming personality.
"The white reminds us of his teeth and the smile, and the yellow is bright and cheery and means friendship," said Stacy Chapin, his mother. "It's very, very fitting to have known Ethan. That's all he ever did for us, was make us smile all the time."
"Ethan had a great smile. Smiled all the time, you know," said Jim Chapin, Ethan's father.
Ethan, one of a set of triplets who all attended the University of Idaho, was majoring in recreation, sport and tourism management. He and his brother were both members of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
"He touched more lives in his 20 years than most people touch in a lifetime. He was kind. He was inclusive. Everybody was welcome," said Stacy Chapin, Ethan's mother.
Washington's Skagit Valley, 90 miles north of Seattle where Ethan grew up and the Chapins still live, is the heart of the nation's tulip industry. Its annual tulip festival draws thousands to see the colorful blooms. He parked cars, took out trash cans and sold tulips with his brother and sister, Hunter and Maizie.
His family created "Ethan's Smile Foundation" to raise money for college scholarships for students in the Skagit Valley through the sales of Ethan's namesake tulips, bulbs and other merchandise. So far, the foundation has sold over 83,000 bulbs to be planted in gardens, 1,300 sweatshirts and 750 "Ethan's Smile" fresh-cut bouquets.
The Chapins say that the support they have received in starting the foundation and offering people a way to help is helping them cope with the pain of never seeing their son's smile again.
"I mean, I guess my honest answer is, you wish you had it back. I don't know... It was an amazing 20 years we had with him," Stacy Chapin said.
Chapin along with his girlfriend Xana Kernodle and her roommates, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves were stabbed to death at a house, located on King Street in Moscow, Idaho, early in the morning of Nov. 13, 2022.
On Dec. 30, suspect Brian Kohberger was arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. Kohberger's trial is scheduled for June 2023.
