‘March Fourth’ keeps son’s memory alive

The foundation dropped off its first donations Tuesday to UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital.

After their son’s death, longtime Elizabeth Township residents Ed and Jacki Faircloth created a foundation in his honor and called it “March Fourth” for his birthday.

It’s designed to help those who are struggling with mental illness in the family keep moving forward during difficult times and let them know they are not alone.

The Faircloths’ son Tanner passed away in the early morning hours of Sept. 15, 2023, after a long battle with bipolar disorder led to suicide. He was as a charismatic kid who had a passion for coin collecting, swimming and taking walks. Sunday will mark the one-year anniversary of his death.

Jacki’s goal for the foundation is to eventually give a package to every patient at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, where Tanner was admitted, and raise enough money to redecorate the hospital and aid in mental health research.

On World Suicide Prevention Day, which was Tuesday, the organization had its first patient delivery to the hospital. The care package includes a March Fourth bag, a pair of Crocs or a crewneck sweatshirt and a March Fourth card with the logo and motto “One Step at a Time” on the front, along with “In loving memory of Tanner Faircloth.”

They took the shirts and shoes to a nursing administration office conference room due to restrictions in the hospital. Jacki said it made her happy that the project has come together.

“What a wonderful and generous way for you to honor Tanner’s legacy,” Deborah S. Brodine, president of UPMC Western Psychiatric wrote in an email. “On behalf of our patients and also our staff at Western Psychiatric Hospital – thank you for your efforts, your care, and your compassion. May this campaign give peace as it gives comfort to our patients.”

The UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital staff member who delivered the items to the patients told Jacki that everyone was excited to receive Crocs, and that delivering the crewnecks to another unit made their whole week.

“One patient asked me more about the organization and after explaining to her, she said that it was so cool and that she was really sorry to hear about your son,” the worker told Jacki. “They immediately put them on and walked around talking with other patients about them.

“They couldn’t believe a person went through the trou- ble to make sure they got such a nice crewneck. I could feel the mood lift on both wings of the unit. You have truly made a difference.”

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, which is why Jacki wanted to get the packages out and delivered in time for the anniversary of losing Tanner.

“Sunday is a year since Tanner passed away, and it has been a difficult week for us,” Jacki said. “I have anxiety with that coming up, and I just wanted to get this started before that year was up so we could honor him in that way. It worked out.”

The Elizabeth Township crafting business Made With Patience handled the T-shirts, according to Jacki, who reached out to a few places.

“She does a lot of crafts and does a lot of shirts, and we told her what we wanted to do and she was moved by what we were doing, and gave us a very reasonable price to do it,” Jacki said. “We figured if they are walking in the halls of the hospital, because a lot of them did, they can say hi to someone that has that on their back and they can see that, too.”

The shirts are tan because that was Tanner’s nickname. They have the March Fourth logo as well as their motto with the semicolon as part of the Project Semicolon for suicide prevention. The National Suicide Hotline number also inside the sweatshirt version of the T-shirt on the cuff.

“So like if they don’t have anyone to help them or reach out to, they have that little secret thing that they can call or text if they are having a crisis once they get home,” Jacki said. “They will have these to take home with them, and if they need that number or someone to help them, they’ll have it right on their sweatshirt.”

Patients are not allowed to bring in shoes with laces or any clothing with hoods, strings or zippers. Patients are often admitted to WPIC for two to four weeks (or even longer) and they pace the halls a lot.

Because of this, a lot of patients are wearing hospital-provided slipper socks and hospital pants and gowns. The nonprofit has been working with administrators to make sure what it is donating is safe.

In this first round of delivery, the Crocs went to all the current patients on the first hospital unit that Tanner was admitted to. The crewnecks are going to all the current patients on the second hospital unit that Tanner was admitted to.

“We have over 100 of each, so we will continue to distribute them to new admissions/ other units after this first round until we either run out or order more, depending on how everything goes,” Jacki said. “I know I sure hope these bring as much comfort to the patients as it has brought to us.”

Back in April, the Primanti Bros. location off Clairton Boulevard in Pleasant Hills donated 20% of event sales to the nonprofit. It provided between $1,100 to $1,200 to be able to put together packages.

As of a month ago, March Fourth had the highest fundraising event of the year.

That led to the selling of shirts and sweatshirts as a fundraiser. People could also donate a shirt to a patient through March Fourth’s Facebook page. This has been going on for about two months and they have sold 125 shirts.

The organization declared Thursday to be the first semiannual March Fourth day. The next one will take place March 4, 2025.

Supporters have been asked to do an act of kindness while wearing the shirts so they could help someone else just like they are doing for Tanner.

“Basically, I was blown away with emotion and I walked in the door, and all my co-workers had shirts on,” Jacki said. “I definitely got teary eyed about that, and just to see a patient advocate that was over there when we delivered them said that there are so many patients over there that don’t have shoes to wear in the hospital. They were happy to get real clothes for them to wear and real shoes for them to wear. That made me feel good.”

Jacki hopes to apply for a grant to get more money to redo one or two of the visiting rooms in UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital so families can visit the patients in a comfortable environment.

“That would really be a dream of mine to be able to have a nice spot where patients have visitors come visit them — a calming area where their family can come to because it’s really a part of remembering to go visit a loved one when they are in there,” she said. “That’s a hard place, and if it could be somewhere calming, we thought that would be nice. We are hopefully going to do that at some point in the future.”