Tribute to Tyler Walk is This Sunday in Johns Creek

This Sunday, Nov. 9, the 4th Annual Tribute to Tyler Walk will be an afternoon full of fun at the Seven Oaks clubhouse in Johns Creek. Woven throughout the family-oriented festivities that have come to define this, and other, Tyler’s Way events, however, will be a different sort of family story – a tale of one family’s determination to turn unspeakable tragedy into a triumph of community support in honor of a boy named Tyler.

In April 2011, Jeff and Carrie Safarriyeh had taken their family on a Spring Break ski trip to Colorado. On the final run, 11-year-old Tyler, a fifth-grader at Findley Oaks Elementary, was leading the way down an intermediate slope, followed by his brother Brandon, 9, a friend and, close behind, his parents, when he came upon a handicapped skier tethered to an instructor. As Carrie recalled, little about the pair identified them – or the cords stretching between them. The handicapped skier took a sharp turn in front of Tyler, who hit the tethers, broke his neck and died instantly.

Back home in Johns Creek, friends and family did what they could for the devastated Safarriyeh family (which also included 3-year-old Ella). And one of those things was requesting, in lieu of flowers, that donations be made to a foundation established in Tyler’s honor. As days drifted into months and the fog of despair faded into clarity, the Safarriyehs, with help from good friends like Kristen Portaro, created a Tyler’s Way Board and, over time, settled on a “broad mission” to use the donations as positively as possible. The non-profit organization would have a range of goals shaped by Tyler himself and defined by the tagline at www.tylersway.com: “Love Life. Laugh Often. Play Hard. Live like Tyler lived, and you will live a life worth living.”

With Jeff’s support, Carrie works year-round on the foundation’s threefold mission of promoting character in children, supporting the community that supported them, and embracing families after a loss. Far more than busy work for brokenhearted parents, each goal has been met, year after year, with true, tangible results.

First, the foundation presents the Tyler Safarriyeh Character Education Award to a rising sixth- and seventh-grader nominated and selected by the staff and teachers at Findley Oaks to receive a $250 prize for making good choices, believing in themselves and displaying honesty, fairness, respect and citizenship, as Tyler did.

For the foundation’s community facet, Tyler’s Way offers sports scholarships to local families who may not be able to afford recreational activities like lacrosse or football for their children. Tyler, who played baseball at Ocee Park and DI football with a local league, loved athletics.

Tyler’s Way also provides $1,000 scholarships annually to a graduating student athlete from each of Johns Creek’s three high schools. Last year’s winners were Hailey Gatins, Chattahoochee High School, Northview’s Hayden Cox and Gabriella Goldberg from Johns Creek High School.

For the foundation’s third focus – family support – Tyler’s Way delivers “grief baskets” and financial assistance to local families after the death of a child or loved one. The baskets and, no doubt, Carrie’s own kind, quiet example, have inspired similarly grief-stricken families to form their own foundations in honor of loved ones.

Finally, the Safarriyehs’ work has culminated in one more major accomplishment, and it is deeply personal. This winter, for the first time ever, Colorado’s Winter Park ski resort will require all instructors tethered to disabled skiers to wear identifying safety vests emblazoned with the warning “Handicapped Ski Instructor.”

Today, the Safarriyeh family has grown to include 22-month old twins, and Carrie, who used to burst into tears when she sat down to do foundation work, now finds comfort in giving back to the community “in so many different ways.”

To register for the 4th Annual Tribute to Tyler Walk, or for more information, go to www.tylersway.com.

Pictured: The Safarriyeh family in 2011 included, from left, Tyler, Ella, Jeff, Brandon and Carrie. Today, the Safarriyehs are also parents to 22-month-old twins, Blake and Emma.