Friends and Family Honoring Kody J Churma
Song belongs to Craig Campbell. You can listen to him here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkXETsK1B2A
Days after Kody's passing, his youngest sister Montana sang a cover of this song she only heard for the first time days before.
A true dedication to her brother who loved her voice very much.
Photos taken by Austin Lange
Kickstands Up For Kody
After many years of talking about this event, we were finally able to pull it off on July 31, 2021! The weather was perfect and we had an abundant of participates for the ride and a wonderful turn out for the Chinese Auction!
From the moment Kickstands were up, until the end of the event in the evening, the day was full of fun, laughter, reminiscing and good times. Our family is grateful for all of the love and support as always!
We are so happy that we got to host this event at the Shootin' Bull Tavern, and also include some of our local bars too! We would like to thank the Shootin' Bull Tavern, the owners and all of our friends that work there. They were able to help us make the day such a success! Thank you to the Cool Water Saloon, Barefoot Bar and Grill and Woodpeckers for allowing us to stop at each of your locations and allow us to include you in our event! Our riders had a great day and enjoyed stopping at each bar!
The day was also so successful for all of our family and friends that came out to help and support us. We would like to extend a thank you to the following:
The Muchnok's
The Schwartz's
The Arick's
The Oswalt's
Anthony Liperia
Tee's N Tops
First National Bank
Shelby Black
Amy Yarko
Helen Murray
Lindsey with Neora Care
Paula with Kindred Beauty
The Shootin' Bull beer suppliers (Ragen, Mike, Joe and Mike) who generously donated some wonderful gifts for our event
We would also like to extend a very special thank you to Beaver Jack Tree Service, LLC for your kindness and generous donation.
We are happy to announce that we were able to raise $5301.00 at this event!
We are continuously working towards raising awareness for this disease in the hopes of helping others. We thank you all for your help and support as we continue in this journey.
3rd Annual (Virtual) Scler-Churma Benefit
2020 brought many hardships. We had to learn how to reconnect with others without being in the same room together. Luckily, we were able to find a way to connect with our family, friends and supporters during this time to celebrate Kody’s birthday.
Over a period of a few weeks we conducted a virtual event where individuals could purchase tickets for a chance to win prizes. Our first prize was a flat screen TV and Sound Bar System valued over $500 and the second, a $200 gift card. We also had an option for those to participate in the 50/50 Raffle.
Congratulations to...
Chelsea S. (winner of the TV and Sound Bar System)
Kristen D. (winner of the $200 gift card)
Holly M. (winner of the 50/50)
Thank you to everyone that participated in this year’s event. We wish everyone a wonderful 2021, and hopefully we can all reunite again in the new year.
*Pictured above-winner, Holly receiving her winnings for the 50/50 and then promptly destroying the check and asking us to donate the monies back to the foundation. Thank you for your contribution and support Holly, we truly appreciate it!
2nd Annual Scler-Churma Benefit
On Tuesday, November 19, 2019 we hosted the 2nd annual Scler-Churma Benefit at the Shootin' Bull Tavern in Murrysville. We had an incredible amount of support all the days and moments leading up to the event. So many people came out to support this foundation and to help us celebrate our Kody's birthday and life with us.
We had so many beautiful baskets that were donated for this event and we could not thank you all enough!
The Schwartz Family
Austin Lange
The Robinson's
Nicole and The Arick Family
Ashley Ardellitz
Becca Bowman
Mandy Silva @ Brothers Beer Distributor
Edible Arrangements in Murrysville
Nakia Garver
Valerie Morrison
Keith "The Cook" and Family
The Muchnok Family
Susan Rogers
The Pittsburgh Penguins and The Penguins Foundation
The night was extremely eventful from start to finish. The food and desserts were delicious and everyone had plenty to eat and drink. A very special thank you to everyone at the Shootin' Bull Tavern. Thank you to Donnie and Mickey for allowing us to host our event there again this year and and providing us with whatever we or anyone in attendance needed. Thank you to Lara Beth, Kelly, Amy, Debbie, Steph, Keith and all others that helped us set things up and keep everything going throughout the event. We could not have a successful event without you all. Our family is extremely thankful for you all.
The Chinese auction went off without a hitch and was extremely entertaining. We are always grateful for the incredible baskets that are donated for this event. Thank you to everyone that donated a chinese auction basket this year. Those that did are listed to the left for a special shout out and thank you!
By a crazy fate of chance, there was a reporter for the local news that showed up to support one of the bands that were a part of the entertainment that night. He took the time and spoke with us about the foundation and our Kody. It was an honor to meet and spend a few moments with him. We truly appreciate his kind words and support.
Our lantern release was definitely one to remember. It did take everyone a while to get theirs lit but once some did they floated off into the night sky as they are meant to. However, some did make us laugh, the two the got caught in the trees and worried us all for a minute if other matters needed to be put in effect, or the one that got as high as the telephone lines and decided to stay there. What truly matters is those moments that we all shared together, in honor of Kody, remembering him and sending well wishes up into the sky. Even though we were tears and with a couple of laughs, I don't believe Kody would have wanted it any other way.
Last, we would like to thank all of those that supported us by providing the entertainment that night. Demi Schwartz, John Payne, Montana Churma and Colin Suierveld & His Band. We cannot thank you all enough for your support of our foundation and for sharing your wonderful talent with all of us and everyone in attendance. We are glad to have such incredibly talented people around us who love sharing their talent with others. We heard so many great compliments about all of the acts and hope that you will all be available next year!
Thank you again to everyone. We appreciate your support and love more than you know. We raised a total of $2611.30 at this event. We look forward to continuing to raise awareness for his disease Scleroderma. We look forward to the future and continuing to share Kody's life.
A very special thank you to Colin & His Band for you unconditional support of our foundation. We appreciate the time that you put into each event and are grateful to be around such an incredible talent. We cannot wait to see what your future holds and will always be there to support you all!
Mars Self Defense Class
On August 4, 2019, Scler-Churma Inc hosted a 2nd Self Defense class at the Adams Ridge Community Center in Mars, PA. We had our instructors, Steve and Rich who took time to help teach our participants basic self defense moves that they could use if they ever found themselves in a defensive situation.
We had an entire class full of mothers and daughters who were extremely active and ready to learn what our instructors had in store. The women and girls were taught the basics of self defense and how to quickly and effectively beat their attacker in order to get away. It was wonderful to see all of the mothers and daughters having a wonderful time together while learning important defense techniques.
We are overly ecstatic on how many positive responses we received for hosting this class. We hope to see many of the participants in the future and new comers! Thank you to all who participated, we truly appreciate your support.
Colin Suierveld's Release of his Debut EP Smokestacks in my Head
What an amazing night we had on June 22nd! We're still smiling from the incredible turn out that we had.
Thank you to the incredible bands that performed all night:
Jake, Pat & Tyler
Mike Berginc (from "As Ladders")
The Dead End Streets
&
Colin Suierveld & His Band
It was a pleasure listening to you all play all night. You are all so talented and are truly amazing at what you do. We cannot wait to see what the future holds for each and everyone of you.
A special thank you to Kathy and Zanderz Sports Bar for having us and providing drinks and food for the entire night. Everything was delicious and we will be back very soon!
Thank you to everyone that came out that night to support our local bands and our foundation. We always love seeing you all and meeting new people as well who ask us about our Kody. We are here to carry out his wishes and you all help us do that, so a very special thank you to you all.
And finally a huge thank you to Colin Suierveld for asking us to be apart of this wonderful event that you planned. We look forward to working with you again in the very near future.
With much love from the Scler-Churma Board and The Churma Family
Sean's Story Time
Kody's cousin Sean, who is 12, recently had a 6th grade project for the English Language Arts. Their project was to write a Fractured Fairytale, a fairy or folk tale that has been modified in such a way to make us laugh at an unexpected characterization, plot development or contrary point of view. He chose the folk tale 'The Big Bad Wolf and 3 Little Pigs as his inspiration. The title of Sean's fractured fairytale is "The Big Bad Shark and 3 Little Fish." After completing the assignment, each 6th grader was to read their story to the younger classes.
Sean is such a kind young man and has such a beautiful heart. When you open the cover of the book you see that he had made a dedication of his work, something that many authors do. He chose to dedicate his work to his cousin, Kody, in which he wrote a small excerpt of his perception of who his cousin was.
Thank you so much Sean, Kody would be so honored.
Self Defense Class
On June 2, 2019, Scler-Churma Inc hosted a Self Defense class at the Sampson Family YMCA. We had our instructors, Steve, Rich and Steve who took time to help teach our participants basic self defense moves that they could use if they ever found themselves in a defensive situation.
The participants were taught a few main points to strike an attacker that would allow themselves time to run away. They were also taught how to protect themselves if an attacker was coming at them in a standing position, being attacked from behind and how to disarm the attacker if they were on top of you on the ground.
We would like to thank everyone who came out and particpated at this event, all of our wonderful instructors and the Sampson Family YMCA who allowed us to host our event at their facilities.
On Sunday, November 4th, 2018, Kody's honorary nephew, Alex had a soccer game and honored his Uncle Kody by dedicating the game to him.
The team learned about Uncle Kody before the game and got to meet Kody's parents who were in attendance. They brought a photo of Kody that Alex showed to his team which was then placed on the sidelines by the teams bench so that he could watch the game.
All Videos
Kody and Alex
Thank you to the Fisher Family, Alex's Soccer Coach and teammates, and especially Alex. Uncle Kody would be very proud of you!
1st Annual Scler-Churma Event
On November 19th 2018 we celebrated Kody's birthday and had the first officially event of the Scler-Churma foundation.
It was an amazing night! We were surrounded by wonderful people who had nothing but wonderful things to say about our Kody. We had a ton of food, live music, and so many Chinese auction baskets.
Our friends at the Shootin' Bull were so kind to let us host the event at their establishment. They went above and beyond to make sure we had enough food and drinks and that the night went smoothly. We would like to say a special Thank you to the owners and staff at the Bull. We are truly grateful for your kindness and hard work. Kody would have loved it.
We had so many friends and family and others who recently learned about Kody's story donate baskets to help us raise funds. Our family would like to personally say thank your to the following people who were so generous and donated beautiful baskets.
Thank you to all the Chinese Auction Basket donators:
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Kevin and Beth Muchnok
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Kathy Churma
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Rachel Caretti
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The Churma Family
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Amy Helper
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Gene Helper
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Michelle Schwartz
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Valerie Morrison
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The O'Black Family
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Adam Weaver
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Kathy Churma and Jane Krusey
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The Stewart Family
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Pediatric Dentistry of Pittsburgh - Dr. Shaw
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The Robinson's
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Lisa Satira-Brozek
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The Gielselhart's
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Denise Lange
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BJ Kammerdiener
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Chelsea Schwartz
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The Koletchi Family
We would also like to thank the two bands that came out and donated their time that evening. the music was wonderful and everyone enjoyed it very much. We appreciate you all taking time and energy to help us make the event more special.
Special congratulations to the two big ticket winners of the night! The Pittsburgh Penguins signed a hockey stick and donated it to our event. For our second big ticket item the Pittsburgh Penguins sent two tickets for dinner at the Lexus Club and a Game.
Congrats Rachel!
Congrats LB & Mark!
Winner of the Pittsburgh Penguins Autographed Hockey Stick.
Winners of the Two tickets to the Lexus Club dinner and a Penguins Game.
And finally we would like to thank everyone who attended and helped us make this event so special. Our family is grateful for everyone who attended and spent the evening with us. We would like to extend an invitation for next years event. We will be having another event at the Shootin' Bull next year to celebrate Kody's Birthday. Same time, same place. We hope to see you there!
