Couple keeps their daughter’s memory alive by spreading kindness

By Chierstin Susel

Click here for updates on this story

    BOULDER, Colorado (KCNC) — A Boulder, Colorado couple is on a mission to keep their daughter’s memory alive while spreading kindness the way she did.

Ellie Berg loved people and loved life.

“She played basketball, hip hop, she loved to dance,” her mom, Carly Berg, said of her 6-year-old daughter. “She sings and plays the ukulele and makes up songs that you know just come from her head and her mind and coloring and drawing and painting.”

She was thoughtful and curious beyond her years.

“And while she played and had a great imagination and had all different characters that were part of her life, she knew how to be around other people,” Carly added.

Tragically, Ellie passed away in November 2023 when a tree collapsed in the backyard of the family’s home in Boulder.

“There’s a saying, time heals all wounds,” said Ellie’s dad, Josh Berg. “I often talk to people in our similar situation, where it’s like, except if your child dies before you, and there’s, there’s truly no healing.”

“We often feel like we’re zombies,” Carly added. “We look at each other and we’re like, ‘this is real. Like, are we really doing this?'”

In order to carry on the legacy of their daughter, Josh and Carly Berg are on a mission to spread kindness through the Be Like Ellie Foundation.

“We want to be out there spreading Ellie and spreading kindness,” Carly said. “That’s super important to us because she’s not here to do it herself, so it’s our mission now to do that on her behalf.”

Josh and Carly have created various ways to spread kindness, including kindness cards that encourage people to participate in simple acts of kindness. The place they’ve seen the most cards picked up, is the Alpine Modern coffee shop near the University of Colorado campus.

“We dropped 30 at a time, and there were days where I’d come back two days later, they were all gone,” said Josh. “And then we started realizing that whenever it’s break for the students at CU, the cards weren’t flying off the shelves as quickly, if you will, and then as soon as break came back, we’d be here, and we’d have to replenish them very quickly. And at a time when it seems that there’s a mental health crisis across our country, certainly, but in college as well. “

“Our customer base is made up of a lot of students,” said Hannah Carlson, a manager at Alpine Modern. “I think they’re just curious about it and they want to learn and they want to spread kindness if they can.”

Whether through their tattoos of her lyrics or drawings, or her many smiling photos, memories of Ellie’s presence will never fade, and through her parents’ efforts, her dedication to touching people’s lives will continue as well.

“She really appreciated having her name known by people, and that’s why when people ask, ‘What do you want coming out of this foundation?’ I always say, and I believe Carly does as well, I want people to know Ellie’s name, and I want them to spread kindness in her honor,” said Josh. “It’s as simple as that.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.