Grieving Parents Honor Daughter by Turning Heartbreak Into Kindness Movement
Boulder, Colorado residents, Josh and Carly Berg, are on a mission to keep the memory of their late daughter, six-year-old Ellie, alive. Ellie Berg was a vibrant, kindhearted girl who passed away tragically in November 2023 when a tree collapsed in her family’s backyard.
Determined to spread Ellie’s kindness in the world, her parents launched the Be Like Ellie Foundation in May 2024, which encourages people to perform acts of kindness just as Ellie would.
Ellie’s natural generosity touched many in her community. Carly, her mother, recalls Ellie’s sweet gestures, especially on Valentine’s Day, when Ellie painted watercolor cards for each of her 23 classmates, with personalized notes on each one. “I posted a picture of her doing that, and I said, ‘Be like Ellie,’ because Ellie went out of her way to do that, and we should be like Ellie,” Carly shared.
Ellie was also known for thanking police officers for their service, greeting strangers at the grocery store, and sending her 95-year-old great-grandfather handwritten letters. She even sent a Thanksgiving card to a former teacher and invited her to Ellie’s dance recital.
“People would say to us, ‘Is she this way with everyone?’ Because she just made people feel like they were the most special person in the room,” said Carly.
For Josh and Carly, the foundation is a way to channel their grief into something meaningful. “This is our way of parenting Ellie without her being here. It’s making sure that the world knows her, that the community knows her, that they remember her,” Carly remarked. “And that her impact that she hopefully would have had, had she been here, that we can still do on her behalf.”
The Be Like Ellie Foundation carries Ellie’s spirit of kindness forward, offering “kindness grants” for individuals and nonprofits so they can bring goodness into the world. Already, they have helped a mother cover her child’s medical expenses and a musician replace stolen equipment. In November, they will launch a 30 Days of Kindness challenge on Instagram to inspire even more acts of kindness.
“Ellie’s life was about kindness,” Josh reflects. “We want everyone to know Ellie’s name, and we want to have the impact we believe she would [have had].”
Alongside the kindness grants, the foundation distributes Be Like Ellie bracelets and stickers that read, “Spread Love, Be Kind, Play Music.” After gifting stickers to a second-grade class, they were overwhelmed by letters from the students detailing how they planned to spread kindness. “I cried,” Josh commented. “It takes the smallest effort to change the world.”
The foundation’s website offers simple ways to spread kindness that cost little to nothing, from sharing an umbrella with someone to writing a thank-you note. Josh puts it beautifully: “If one person does something kind, you’ve changed the world.”
With every act of kindness, Josh and Carly are making sure that Ellie’s love lives on one small gesture at a time.
