72 Acts of Kindness

06/03/2026

Brothers always. We are proud of you, Liam.

Meet Liam Brown

Liam will be taking the ice in our Survivor Game on June 13th — carrying the memory of his older brother, Colin. At just 15 years old, Liam was driving home from his hockey game when Colin, heading home from his CBC game, was tragically killed by random gunfire on I-55 in St. Louis. In that moment, Liam lost his brother, his teammate, and his best friend.

Life changed forever, yet Liam has continued to rise. He excels in school, pushes himself on the ice, and he and his family “survive” every day without the person who meant the world to them.

Liam skates with purpose, strength, and a love that never fades. His journey is why this night matters. No one skates alone, and every story deserves to be honored.

👇 Read his full story in the comments.

06/03/2026

I’ve been trying to find the right day or the right time to make an announcement but I don’t know what day that would be. Colin’s birthday? The day he was shot? The day he left this world? I open my eyes every morning in disbelief that this is my life. So while events and milestones are hard, life is just plain hard, every day.

All of you following know about our mission, our desire to keep Colin’s kind heart at the forefront of everything we do and that I post about the amazing things that people have been doing to make this world better in Colin’s name. Well, we made it official, we have incorporated 72 Acts of Kindness into a 501(c)3. While we find our footing, we have put together a board and we will have our first meeting in June. Right now I have so many ideas and all of them are about serving others, helping those that need help and like a true defenseman we will stand by that net waiting to tip in every goal!

Getting back to the beauty of our mission, sweet sweet Cambree who we lost this year at way too young of an age, however her spirited heart leads many to do wonderful things in her name and in honor of 72 Acts. Cambree’s beautiful mother along with some other hockey moms took a much needed break to New Orleans where they helped to fill a fridge with food for the less fortunate. Apparently, there are empty fridges for different wards of the city and you can feed the homeless or any deserving people by filling the fridge. Hollie, Lynae and Crystal, I am so proud to know all of you. Let’s keep Colin and Cambree’s light shining.

05/30/2026

I’ve been in a space recently where I’ve just been at a loss for words. I’m exhausted, I’m sad, I’m emotionally drained yet I’ve smiled, I’ve loved and I’ve laughed. I have also cried, I’ve lost my breath and I’ve dropped to my knees and wailed. To know the only person you want to see, want to hug, want to speak to and not only can you not but you wont be able to, not today, not tomorrow, not next week, or even next year and the awful truth is it will never happen while you are on this earth, and it hurts.

Grief changes so many things, so many things you do every single day that you never gave a second thought to before your life became forever changed. Every single inch of your home holds a memory and some of those memories make it impossible to enter those rooms in your home, the obvious is his bedroom but it’s not just his bedroom. I avoid the basement, it’s where he and Liam hung out, its where we have a small home gym and I can’t look at the weights he lifted or the Superdeker where he practiced stick handling and right now it has become the place where everything is stored from the hospital and his funeral but I did go down there to look for some important papers I needed and there it was. I should have not opened it, I should have walked past it, but I didn’t.

The giant tub was marked with a sharpie “Colin’s baby memories.” I lifted the lid and starring back at me was his birth certificate and ankle bracelet from the hospital and now we have his death certificate and his wrist bracelet from his days in ICU. How did we go from congratulations on the birth of your baby boy to I’m sorry for your loss? How did we go from ultrasound photos to an obituary? How did we go from Uncle Craig sending in utero Colin postcards from his work travel to getting notifications regarding news stories of your son’s murder? I’ll never have answers, I’ll never write on a tub “Colin’s college memories.”

Grief now runs my everyday, it manages my central nervous system, grief controls my every move. I used to be such a night owl and now I hate the night, I hate once the sun goes down. It was in the dark that Colin was murdered, it is in the dark that I find it hard to breathe, it is in the dark that panic sets in, it is in the dark that I lack the ability to do anything functional. If clothes are in the washing machine once dark that is where they stay, if we have not eaten dinner we won’t be eating tonight, if I need to shower I’m falling asleep dirty. The simplest tasks are the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. Going to the mailbox, don’t ask me why, it’s a short walk down the driveway but we can only get to it about once a month and even then we just throw it in a pile. I recently opened a birthday card for Liam, his birthday is in October. So that’s grief, it has a smile, it has a laugh but mostly it’s a painful, desperate yearning for what once was.

05/13/2026

I will be sharing this on repeat until we fill all the slots. I meet Gail when she reached out to me shortly after Colin’s passing. Those that are local know how much our tragedy filled the news almost everyday for weeks. Because of that I have met moms who tragically lost a child in the blink of an eye and Gail is one of them.

She is not the only one who has reached out to me about sudden cardiac arrest of their athlete son. So when Gail who has her own foundation to catch SCA before it happens came to my house to provide 72 Acts of Kindness with an AED we had the opportunity to learn more about each other but more importantly to learn about each others sons.

Gail lost her son Greg to an undiagnosed heart ailment that was later found out to be genetic. Greg was a much loved baseball player who passed away of SCA 13 years ago. We still don’t think a young healthy athlete can suffer a cardiac event but they do and it’s more common than you think. I promised Gail and her husband Mark that I would spread the word through the hockey community so that’s exactly what I am doing.

The Greg Holthaus foundation does two things to honor Greg’s memory. The first is they raise money to purchase AED’s to give to schools and sports programs. The AED Gail so kindly gave me that day has been donated to Colin’s school CBC. The second purpose of Gail’s foundation is to assist young athletes from 12-22 get their hearts tested.

With the assistance of MCORE the Greg Holthaus foundation spends a weekend in July screening athletes for undiagnosed heart ailments. For $34 (Greg’s baseball number) you can have your athletes heart screened, the foundation will cover the remainder of the costs. You better believe I am having Liam screened. 72 Acts of Kindness was able to assist in getting Affton to donate their space, they will be screening athletes privately in two of the locker rooms on July 17th. There is a QR code on the flyer.

St. Louis let’s fill all available slots and help our boys and girls screen their hearts to continue to safely play the sports they love. Since meeting Gail, I have had another mom reach out who lost her son to SCA and he was a hockey player. I know how big the hockey community is, let’s get this done.

05/11/2026

Sometimes there are simply no words. I received this just moments ago and I need to speak of this young man’s heart. This is Chase, he played hockey with Colin at both Affton and CBC. For those who didn’t know Colin, Chase is Colin. Chase and Colin were cut from the same cloth, both very smart, both very kind, both put others before self, both excelled academically and athletically.

I had posted before about a young man who after every game and without any fanfare and by himself would go to center ice and pray for Colin, that is Chase. Chase is the type of young man that makes me realize there is still good in this world, he is our future and I can’t wait to watch where life takes him. We love you Chase ❤️❤️

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYJN1U-o7sd/?igsh=eXd1OTFyb2doaGJx

05/11/2026

I’m guessing all of you who have been following for a while had to feel there would be a post today. Mother’s Day when your heart doesn’t feel like a mother is very difficult. Yes, I still have Liam whom I love with all my heart and soul, he is every breath that I take except now I struggle to breathe.

I think about that rainy cold April day in 2008 when we brought Colin home from the hospital, with us was a heated blanket because his bilirubin was high, we wrapped him tightly and we called him our little glow worm because of the fluorescent green light coming from his ever so tiny body. I think of my husband snuggled with him on the floor, first time parents just praying we were doing what his little body needed, praying to keep him healthy, praying to keep him safe. How could we have known all the years ahead of keeping him safe would come to an end so abruptly and so violently. It’s our job to protect them, right?

Love them, treasure them, educate them, make them good humans who give back. Teach them to care, put others first, lead with your heart, be a good friend, be a good brother, be a good son. Colin, you were all those things and more. And on this weekend when moms are celebrated for what they do, we celebrated you and the beautiful years you gave us as your parents. Your impact on your friends and your school was never more present than watching your graduating class of 2026 include you in their graduation ceremonies.

Colin donated his heart but I know it’s still walking the halls of CBC, I know it’s still in the spirit of the faculty who are raising leaders there every day, and I know it is forever in the souls of his CBC brothers.

Friday night was CBC’s class of 26 Baccalaureate mass, this is where these young men thank their parents for giving them the gift of spending four years learning and loving what it means to be a Cadet. Every senior is called up to present a certificate to their parents and President Riley makes sure each boy gives their parents a great big bear hug. After all the boys were done, Colin’s hockey besties presented us with the certificate and we received a hug from each of these precious young men. This was followed by a video presentation of the class of 2026 in their CBC element, seeing Colin so alive and happy at the place he felt was home was enough to have the tears rolling down my face, I’m thankful they turned off the lights. Colin’s teammates had to quickly leave to get to a roller hockey championship game, and guess what, they are state champs and they didn’t forget number 3!!

Friday’s events were followed by today, graduation day. We needed to make sure Colin was there so we brought him. When he passed and was cremated we had some of his ashes put into three tiny handheld urns so that we can all carry him close to our hearts wherever and whenever we want him with us. We were fortunate enough to be able to find one that represents his Affton hockey team. So yes, Colin was at graduation today, the class President spoke so very kindly of Colin and our family and all four of us where there to hear it.

However, the highlight of today was being presented with a frame and inside that frame was a picture of a brick from the walkway leading to the front doors of CBC. A brick engraved and dedicated to Colin, I was at a loss for words. So to the following families who donated to make it happen, thank you. Thank you Coaches Trenz, Eric, Tyler, Jost, Blake and Bobby J. and to the Roepke/Blanchard/Rhode, Mullen, Nappier, Kelly, Majino and Rekart families, walking past that brick will forever make me smile.

It was a very emotional weekend but one that was filled with so much love for Colin, having our sons attend CBC was by far the best decision we have ever made. We may not have been able to keep Colin safe on that fateful day in November but we were able to make his dream come true by leaving this world as a Cadet.

05/03/2026

You know how once you have your first child you all of a sudden cannot remember what life was like without them. Well the exact same is true for losing your child except you can’t remember your life free from the pain of missing them.

No matter the amount of smiles or laughs that may shown to the outside world your heart is still so unbelievably heavy, there is a real ache, it’s physical and it’s exhausting. Because of this page I have connected with other moms who know this feeling, for some it’s as fresh as Colin and for others it’s been years even decades and they still struggle. Tomorrow is National Bereaved Mother’s Day and I will be attending an event with a bunch of moms suffering and I honestly don’t know if it will help or hurt. I follow so many grieving moms on social media and we all are grieving in different ways but one way that we are the same is we would give anything to have our children back.

I never ever want to hurt anyones feelings going through the loss of a child because it is hell on earth, but my honest feelings every time I come across a story or a comment from a mom who also lost a child and then they say the age and they are 40 something or 50 something and my heart instantly goes to why didn’t Colin get those years. Why didn’t this happen when I was in my 80’s, why do I have to potentially live decades without my son, why do I have to wake up each day with a broken heart that can’t be fixed. Yes bad things happen to good people but why us, why me, why Colin, when he had so much to give. Why to Liam, it was his only sibling, he doesn’t even have another sibling to share his loneliness with? No one to giggle with about mom and dad’s craziness because the only person who had those shared experiences and memories with him is gone from his life. Tonight’s a really hard night, hug your babies.

05/01/2026

I have to share a thing I did last night. For the St. Louis hockey fans out there, myself and three other moms did the 2 Many Men on the Mic podcast last night. We spoke about the journey ending, how to stay drama free in travel sports and we had a little fun, well a lot of fun. I said at the end that I would share it on the 72 Acts page so here it is. They are trying to build a following so if you love youth hockey give it a follow and subscribe and think of it as your own personal act of kindness.

Swedish Fish beats Drama 🍬 | Hockey Moms Explain How Teams Become Family

04/29/2026

I could not let April end without sharing two wonderful moments of kindness shared to honor Colin’s 18th birthday.

The first moment was on April 1st, Colin’s actual birthday. Last year on his 17th birthday just a short five months after he passed and we had to spend the first birthday without him a wonderful woman and friend went to Peel restaurant and started the whole 72 Acts movement by surprising a family with 72 dollars to help pay for their dinner and a lovely birthday card sharing Colin’s story. It was this loving gesture that sparked something in us to keep it going. Well, Dr. Jill did it again for Colin’s 18th birthday and this time the receiving family found us and sent the most heartwarming message with promises to continue paying it forward next year in honor of Colin’s birthday. What a gift it was to us to read this message on such a hard day. Thank you Klein family, may you always be blessed with health and happiness.

My Affton and CBC boys have done it again. They too want to keep Colin’s light shining throughout the year by helping those in need. David, JC and Joey the ringleaders of the school supply drive and the Christmas toy drive gathered Colin’s hockey friends and teammates and they put together birthday bags in honor of Colin’s birthday and donated 72 of them. What is a birthday bag? It’s putting together all the items needed to make a birthday cake including the pan and candles so that families who are struggling can still have a cake for their child. These boys are filled with so much love for those less fortunate.

In between these moments, I had mom prom and the ending of hockey forever for Colin’s age group so it’s been a very emotional month and we have what would be Colin’s graduation coming in May so to everyone who has said a kind word, given us a hug or most importantly has left a heartfelt comment on one of our posts, it was read, it was felt and it helped us to make it through a very tough month. Hugs to all of you.

04/21/2026

Very long post: I’ve needed a lot of time to process all that has happened and the finality of it. When Colin was still with us I very much dreaded his hockey years coming to an end because I knew it would be hard. This would have been his final year before heading off to college, as they say the days are long but the years are short.

Freezing dark mornings driving to a cold rink, late night practices, the fact that there really isn’t an end to the season, just finishing a team to start practicing with another. The travel, all the travel, so many miles driven, so many airline tickets purchased and the amount of Marriotts we have slept in are too many to count. I would not change a second of it, if those hotel lobbies could talk.

Halfway through Colin’s second to last season is when we lost him, just minutes after getting off the ice doing exactly what he loved. I think it’s why I am so in love with the sport, my son’s last smile was in those moments. This is why I found myself needing to still go to Colin’s games. I needed to be in the rink sitting with the moms who became my family, who helped wipe my tears, who lifted my head above water when all I wanted to do was sink. I needed to watch those boys plays with names on the jerseys who I came to love as my own. I needed to look across the ice and see the coaches who gave everything to my son, their knowledge, their expertise, their time and most importantly their love.

I spent this final year of Colin’s hockey still traveling with the team, I just needed it, I needed to feel my son’s presence. When I look at Aiden, or Tripp or DJ or Jack or Vinny, I see Colin. When I hear Feiny or Dewey or Nay or Bob laugh, I hear Colin laugh. And in the the most unexpected of times, when I see Rudy smile, I see Colin smile. We spent years with these boys and their families, how could I not be there for their final season. Watching them all succeed both on and off the ice fills me with so much pride, Colin surrounded himself with the best. These boys aren’t just great hockey players, they are smart, they are kind and they have given me more than they will ever know. After Colin passed and I went though his phone I had found some videos of these boys just being boys on some of our hockey trips. Trying to do a tik tok dance, doing snow angels and pushing each other down in a snow storm at Notre Dame, boys being more than teammates, they were boys doing life together and it will be so unbelievably missed.

A few weeks ago this team made it to USA hockey Nationals and we joined them. The moms and I did all our crazy superstitions and we shared some amazing moments but on the third day it came to an end, we would not leave as National champs and not only was our season over but our years together had come to a heartbreaking end or at least that’s how it felt. As we scrambled to change our flights to go home we all agreed to not leave until the following day. Littleton Colorado was also at Nationals, the team we have come to love for their unbelievable hearts. This is the team that was in town when we lost Colin, and they came back twice to St. Louis just to support Affton. Littletons boys came and watched one of our games and even after we were out, our boys went and cheered for them, that is our boys banging on the glass cheering for our former foes now friends. We also stayed so we could have one last night and boy did we make it count. There aren’t any words to describe the amount of love that was felt. We reminisced about everything, we played some of our longtime silly games, Amanda had fake tattoos made for us. We cried, we hugged, we told each other how much we all meant to each other.

I know how badly the boys and the coaches wanted to bring it home for Brownie, we all did, but now after reflecting had we made it to the end, while it would have been fantastic, we would have gone from the rink to the airport. Having our journey end early in the day and everyone agreeing to stay allowed us to have an evening together that will live in my heart forever. I could not love these people more, they saved me, they actually saved me.

And finally last night was our season ending party, sitting and talking with a few new to the team moms they told me how much this season meant to them too, that they in all theirs years had not experienced a team so special. So it wasn’t just me feeling this, others feel it and see it too. It’s special because it starts from the top. Coach Bobby, he is the reason, he coaches from the heart, and everyone buys into it because it genuine, everyone lifts each other up, no one blames anyone for a loss, win together, lose together. Watching Coach speak to everyone last night and speak about the uniqueness of every player on the team and then tell them he loves them and gave them each a hug. And even with all of that he presented me with a book, a story he wrote about Colin, a story about his journey in faith and with losing my son, my son. I haven’t read it all yet because I have to do these things in small doses. So yes this team is special, special because Coach Bobby is special.

I’ve said it a million times, we are heartbroken, deeply deeply heartbroken but we are also very blessed. Thank you Affton for the memories.

And because Meta won’t let me post video and pic at the same time, look in the comments for Coach speaking last night about Brownie. ❤️