By Denise Crosby dcrosby@stmedianetwork.com
Jared Knispel, 16, died in 2013 when the car he was working under in the driveway of his home in Plano fell off its jacks. | Submitted
This is a tale of two tragedies. Two sets of parents who lost young children.
Two families who have turned grief into hope for others.
Families coming together, not only to build a better home, but also a stronger community.
The story really starts in 2009. That's when Tom and Kim Zimmermann of Plano lost their 3-week-old son Tommy, born prematurely, to pneumonia.
Tom, a cabinetmaker, and Kim, an Aurora police officer, were not spiritual people when their newborn died in their arms.
'We didn't even go to church on Christmas and Easter,' Tom admitted.
But through the prayers of others, the couple 'gradually found the Holy Spirit,' added Tom. 'And it redefined our life focus to one of compassion and action in helping those in need.'
Three years later, in memory of their son, the Zimmermanns formed 'Tommy's Gift,' a faith-based mission of the United Methodist Church of Plano that focused on helping needy families with home maintenance and repairs.
Last year, the couple also became board members of the Plano Building Community, an organization started five years earlier to annually help one local family with extensive home repairs and renovations.
This Memorial Day, the two groups are working in conjunction on one extreme home makeover to help a family also dealing with the death of a child.
The Knispel story
In 2009, the same year the Zimmermanns lost their baby, Dave and Lauri Knispel rented out their Plano home and moved with their three young sons to Urbana so Lauri could pursue a degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Illinois.
Last August, a couple of months after graduating and moving back to Plano, the couple had begun renovating their home when tragedy struck. Their oldest son, 16-year-old Jared, an Eagle Scout, athlete and budding engineer, was fatally injured when the car he was working under in the driveway fell off its jacks.
As it turned out, Lauri had just met the Zimmermanns at church the week before. And because she had his number in her phone, he was the first person she called to begin a prayer chain as Jared was airlifted to Rockford.
Although they did not know it at the time, Kim's twin sister Karen, a Kendall County sheriff's deputy, was also the first one on the scene after 911 was called.
But all efforts to save their child were futile. Before Jared was taken off life support, the parents made the decision to donate his heart, liver, both kidneys and other tissues to Gift of Hope.
It's no wonder the Zimmermanns' connection to the Knispel family is so strong. They understand their pain intimately. But trying to deal with the loss of a child in a home where the boy had been raised and was now torn apart had to be even more difficult, they realized.
'How do you begin to put it all back together again?' asked Tom Zimmermann.
That's where the two groups he leads come back into this story.
Tommy's Gift, in conjunction with the Plano Building Community, are looking for skilled workers and everyday folks to finish off the Knispel's half completed projects so the family, says Tom, can 'begin the healing process.'
'It's Jared looking over us,' noted a grateful Lauri Knispel. 'He's making sure the house gets finished so we don't have to worry about things like that.'
The goal of the 'Jared Knispel Memorial Project' is to raise awareness and funding, but also to inspire volunteers to come together Memorial Day weekend (May 23 to 26) for this extreme home makeover.
A planning meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 3 at the Plano American Legion, and a Trivia Night fundraiser will start at 6:30 p.m. April 26 at the Legion. To find out how to donate money or time, go to tommysgift.org.
'We need money and workers,' said Zimmermann. And he wants this to 'be a family event' because there is 'no better lesson you can teach your children' than giving your time and talents to help others.
'That was Tommy's gift to us,' said Zimmermann. 'You can't explain it ... you just have to show up to see it.'
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