Because of Elizabeth, women will be educated throughout the world, starting in Western Kenya.

Elizabeth Warchot, the namesake of the "Because of Elizabeth Foundation," is described by all who knew her as a perpetually happy child who always wanted to do things for others. Whenever anyone seemed sad or in need of cheering up, she would insist on making something or drawing a picture to cheer them up. Even though she suffered from leukemia for four out of the six years of her life, she was constantly telling others that "life is good."

Born in 1995, Elizabeth was adopted by Lou and Mary Warchot when she was 2 days old.

"She was a delight from the minute we held her, just a happy, loving, joyous little girl," Mary said.

When she was 2 years old, the family moved to McLean. While they were house hunting Elizabeth got sick. Testing revealed that Elizabeth had leukemia. The summer before she turned 3, Elizabeth started chemotherapy.

"She kept a positive attitude the whole time," Mary said. "She’d get sick and say, ‘Whew, glad that’s over with. I feel better.’"

This summer was also the summer the Warchots brought Elizabeth her "very own baby Kate" as she called her baby sister Catherine, the second child the Warchots adopted. The two sisters got along amazingly. Once when a doctor told Elizabeth that little sisters could be "pesky," Elizabeth replied, "Bugs are pesky. Catherine is my sister."

After her last round of chemotherapy, Elizabeth was cancer free for 6 months, but then she relapsed. She needed a bone marrow transplant, and because she was adopted, it was not very likely that she would find a perfect donor. Her mother said it was "miraculous" that several matches were found.

After her transplant, Elizabeth was in isolation for 21 days while her immune system strengthened. While in the hospital, Elizabeth often told her mother, "Mom, life is good."

"She had such a great spirit," Mary said. "She made such an impression on everyone she met."

While in the hospital, Elizabeth told her mother she was not afraid.

"I wonder whose guardian angel I’ll be when I go to heaven. I really think I need to get to heaven before Catherine, because if she gets there first I know she’ll knock me over with her wings."

Six weeks after her bone marrow transplant, Elizabeth’s organs began to fail. On her sixth birthday she went into a coma and died 10 days later.

"We had amazing support from St. John’s even though we didn’t know anyone in the parish," Mary said.

When Elizabeth was about 5 years old Father John Heisler was assigned to St. John Parish as parochial vicar. His pastor told him about Elizabeth and asked him to visit with the family. After meeting her, Father Heisler was so impressed with her perceptiveness that he suggested she receive her first Communion even though she was not yet 7. Father Heisler helped her prepare for the sacrament of reconciliation and her first Eucharist, and Elizabeth was confirmed while she was in the hospital.

Father Heisler was touched with how courageous this tiny girl was. "If I had to go through that, I’d be scared to death," he said. "She exuded this peace, this courage."

But at the same time that she was courageous, she also had a "childlike simplicity," Father Heisler said. "There was some type of hope that radiated from her to help her parents and others suffering from cancer in the hospital."

Jesus said, "let the children come to me" and sometimes, Father Heisler said, "the Lord really means that. I could see with Elizabeth how he would be impatient and want her with him."

Father Heisler said that even though Elizabeth was a young child, he considers her to be his friend. He would have done anything he could do for her, just as he would his own friends and family.

"I still talk to her and ask her for help," he said. "I really think she’s up there (in heaven) and cheering everyone on."

Elizabeth was a very faith-filled child. She would receive Communion daily whenever it was possible. Toward the end of her short life, the only time she could sit up unaided was when the eucharistic ministers from St. John Parish would visit her to bring her the Eucharist. Father Heisler was told that when the eucharistic minister visited Elizabeth’s house the last time she received before she slipped into a coma, Elizabeth could hear her mother chatting with the minister. Elizabeth called to her mom and said, "Mom, can you quit your talking and bring me Jesus?"

In the days before Elizabeth died, Father Cosmas K’Otienoh, a visiting priest from Kenya, was "insistent on coming to the hospital to pray and see her," Mary said. "He prayed so intently over her and prayed for her verbally at every Mass he celebrated. He was so kind."

When Father Cosmas was asked to return to ministry in Kenya, the Warchots wanted to do something to thank him. Thinking that they could donate vestments or something for his church, they asked him what he needed. After praying about it, Father Cosmas told the family, "What we need most is a school for girls."

This was more than the family was prepared to provide, so they decided to create a foundation to raise money for the cause in memory of Elizabeth. And Elizabeth’s parents thought this project was "a perfect fit" for what Elizabeth would have wanted.

Elizabeth was talkative at a very early age and her parents describe her as "inquisitive." She loved school, and was upset when her treatments made her miss classes.

The Warchots met with Father Cosmas’ bishop, Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth of Kisumu, Kenya. Archbishop Okoth shared Father Cosmas’ wish for a school, and said he would provide the land for it adjacent to a university in Kenya. His vision for the school was to create a place to provide not only rudimentary education, but to teach young women ethics and give them the tools they needed as the next generation of leaders.

According to the Warchots, there are no other schools of this level in Western Kenya. "Schools do not consider girls to be the primary focus," Lou said. "In order to change their lifestyle, they need to be educated."

The school will be a boarding school because it is much easier for many of the young girls to focus on their studies if they are able to escape the hardships they experience at home. "Because of Elizabeth" will provide not only the money needed to build the school, the foundation also will create an endowment so that money will not be an impediment for girls wishing to further their education.

"We were very blessed with wonderful priests to guide us through all this, and now (Elizabeth) is guiding us," Mary said. "We have to do this for her because she would have done it on her own."

To break ground, the foundation needs to raise $150,000 to build administrative offices and four classrooms. The Warchots hope that a groundbreaking will be possible in late summer 2006. Aug. 22 will mark Elizabeth’s 11th birthday.

Fund-raising for the foundation has only been taking place during the last year, and most of it is currently done by individuals. A Pampered Chef representative holds in-home sales parties and donates a percentage of sales to the foundation. Joallyn Cartwright, a designer of Delarew handbags and the new Delapod bag, holds purse parties and donates a portion of the proceeds to the foundation. The foundation recently hosted a Christmas bazaar at St. John Church that raised more than $6,500. The Warchots hope that individuals interested in helping the cause will continue to raise money on their own and they are encouraging schools to help.

For more information on the Because of Elizabeth Foundation, go to www.becauseofelizabeth.org or e-mail info@becauseofelizabeth.org. Donations can be sent to Because of Elizabeth Foundation, Inc, P.O. Box 214, McLean, Va. 22101.