Preserving a Robbinsdale soldier's memory

Michele Edstrom frets over the day that people no longer remember her son, Chip Edstrom. Pamela Baker, who never knew Chip, is making sure nobody will forget.

Edstrom was the U.S. Army specialist from Robbinsdale who survived two roadside bombs in Iraq, came home to celebrate his mother's birthday, and discovered a 7-inch tumor attached to his spine. He was 21 when he died last year of melanoma, but on May 10, his memory and dreams will live on through the Chip's Hope Foundation's 5K and 1-mile run/walk in Maple Grove.

"That's his basketball over there," Edstrom said while pointing to a ball in the corner of the living room of her Robbinsdale home. "I worked three jobs so I could give my boys a good education and buy them basketballs or tennis shoes or whatever they needed to be normal, happy kids.

"When Chip was really sick, the day he couldn't pick up that basketball was one of the hardest days of our lives," Edstrom said. "But at least he had the chance to play the sports he loved. Not all parents can afford to buy their kids nice tennis shoes.

"We're hoping the Chip's Hope Foundation can change that for some families."

Baker runs a fitness company called Generation Endurance, which campaigns against the effects of childhood obesity.

She said she has orchestrated a pilot program -- an enrichment gym class -- at St. Vincent de Paul in Minneapolis, where Chip Edstrom went to grade school.

When school faculty put her in touch with Edstrom, the connection between Baker and Chip's Hope seemed a natural.

Kindred spirits

Baker, a former Navy nurse, has run marathons and done triathlons but registers only for events where she knows the national anthem will be played beforehand.

"As an ex-military person, I'm touched by Chip's story because of the military piece," she said. "As someone with a nursing background, I'm touched by his medical dilemma. I thought there's got to be something more to his life and death and the family he left behind."

When she learned that there was a woman who wanted to raise money so families could buy kids gym clothes, she knew she had to get involved.

She helped Edstrom contact corporate attorneys to help her organize the foundation. She asked that somebody sing the national anthem before the May 10 run at Maple Grove's Elm Creek Park Reserve -- and 70 St. Vincent de Paul students offered their voices.

The National Guard has said it will be represented at the starting event, Edstrom said.

"The Service has always been behind Chip," she said. "They paid for the best doctors and medicine for him.

"They flew in his pallbearers."

Edstrom says she paid $3,000 for sweatshirts with Chip's picture and, to her surprise, sold all of them. She will order more with that photo of a smiling Chip in military gear, the same photo that sits on the dining room table.

Her other son, C.J., 20, is only a few months away from starting boot camp.

"If people compare me to my brother, I'm proud of that," he said. "I'm real supportive of everything about this foundation."

His mother admits she is still grieves heavily at times for Chip but is proud that C.J. has joined the Army.

"Chip would be proud, too," she said. "I think Chip would be so proud."

Paul Levy • 612-673-4419