AMHERST – The home of Erik and Kathy Crisman is full of pink.

There are pink dolls on the couch, pink plastic chairs and toys in the living room and pink clothes on their two young daughters, Emma, 5, and Sophie, 2.

The home is a far cry from what it was just 10 years ago, when the Crismans’ sons Kyle and Tim roamed its hallways. But while the home might have changed, the strength of their memories of their sons have not, and this Saturday the Crismans will gather with family, friends and community members to help keep those memories alive.

The family will hold the 10th annual Crisman Memorial 5K Race/Walk at Souhegan High School, organized to help honor Kyle and Tim Crisman, who were killed in a car accident on Nov. 3, 2002 in Peterborough while returning home from a visit with their grandmother.

The race, and other events throughout the year, raise money for the Kyle and Tim Crisman Scholarship Fund, which has given out more than $50,000 in college and other scholarships to local students over the past 10 years.

And while the race may have remained a constant, for the Crismans, life has changed a lot over the past decade. For one, they adopted their youngest daughters from China – first Emma in 2008 and then Sophie this past March.

The couple had been interested in adopting for years, and even shared their plans with their sons and older daughter, Katie, in the summer of 2002.

Those plans were put on hold indefinitely, however, when the accident happened.

“We weren’t in the right place, emotionally, to adopt,” Erik Crisman said, sitting in the family’s kitchen while his daughters chattered in the other room. “I remember we were sitting on the porch one day a few years later and we said, ‘let’s do it’.”

Some friends thought they were crazy, adopting a new baby when their oldest was in her late 20s. But the couple said they knew it was the right decision for them. Their daughters rescued her, Kathy Crisman said. Still, making room for Emma and then Sophie wasn’t always easy.

“It was bittersweet, changing over the boys’ rooms,” Kathy Crisman said. “It was tough to paint over that striped paint that Tim just had to have. Now there’s only pictures left and not stuff in their bedrooms.”

The couple said adopting has been an amazing experience. Sophie has only been in the country for a few months, but was easily speaking English earlier this week, asking her father for a snack and playing with her sister.

The girls’ ability to become part of the family, the Crismans said, has been even more incredible.

“It’s easy for us to love them, but for them to turn around and love us back, unconditionally, that’s a real gift,” Kathy Crisman said.

The Crismans said that despite changes in their own lives, the lives of their friends, and their sons’ friends, one thing that hasn’t changed is the support for the memorial race and walk. Up to 300 runners participate in the event each year, beginning and ending the race on the high school track their son Kyle ran relay on.

Local restaurants and businesses donate gift certificates, products and services to raffle off, and friends and family dedicate hours to help prepare for the event each year.

“We wouldn’t be able to do this without that support,” Erik Crisman said. “We’re grateful to everyone who participates.”

Race Director Cathy Snow is one of the people who has kept the race going for so many years. A family friend for 30 years, Snow met Kathy Crisman when the Crismans’ daughter Katie was in a playgroup with Snow’s daughter. Snow stood by the family throughout their hard time, Erik Crisman said.

“She was our guardian angel,” he said. “She still is.”

The family will be dedicating this year’s memorial race to Snow’s brother, who died this week. Snow will be unable to attend the event, but the Crismans said they want to honor her family the way she has always honored theirs.

All money raised at the event will go to the scholarship fund.

While the fund has given money in the past to local high school graduates moving into higher education for automotive, business or culinary arts – studies reflective of their sons’ interests – the couple hopes to focus more of their giving in the coming years to current high school and lower level students.

With today’s economy, the couple said, many families can’t afford to send their students on trips like Habitat for Humanity, far away field trips and sporting events. The couple hopes to be able to set up a system that would allow students and families to apply for aid for these programs anonymously.

But in the meantime, the Crismans are focusing on keeping the race going for as long as they can. It’s been great to see the event come this far, they said.

“Anything we can do to keep our sons’ memories alive, we want to do that,” Erik Crisman said. “That goes without saying.”

For more information on the Crisman Memorial 5K Race/Walk, visit www.crisman
memorial.com.

Danielle Curtis can be reached at 594-6523 or dcurtis@nashua
telegraph.com.