nothin Ellen Elkins, 48 | New Haven Independent

Ellen Elkins, 48

Ellen at work on the toy drive.

Andrea Jeffress of KIEDC contributed this tribute.

The world lost a giving spirit on Thursday, Jan. 8. Her name was Ellen Elkins.

A gentle beauty of Irish and Japanese heritage, she was even more beautiful on the inside. She was a wife and mother of 4 children: Dylan, Emily, and twins, Blake and Tyler. She was once joked that the name of her four children spelled DEBT”. Besides being a great mother, she was a chef and caterer, and a social media guru. Yet, the greatest legacy she leaves behind is one of volunteerism.

Ellen pledged a great deal of her free time to the initiatives of a local non-profit, Kingdom International Economic Development Corporation (KIEDC). A formidable organizer and computer wiz, she was a talented business owner of a media and marketing company called Thrivepod.com with her husband Darin. Using their business expertise, they secured a Google Grant for KIEDC. She was staunch supporter of women and youth in business and was a contributing writer on the topic of social media in a book called Unleashing the Untapped Reservoir of Entrepreneurship in Women – It’s Your Time”, which is set to be published this year.

In the months, weeks and days leading up to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, she worked tirelessly on helping the KIEDC’s CEO, Metashar Dillon, the Mae Ola Riddick Foundation, and the New Haven Police Department with each of the two 2015 Holiday Food, Hat, Coat & Toy Giveaways in New Haven and volunteered at the City of New Haven’s Holiday Toy Giveaway at the Armory.

Ellen and Darin created the event banner and bought their entire family to all the events, working long hours on those days, lending help in any capacity required. Ellen felt so strongly about imparting the message of always giving to those in need to her children, that she even kept the four of them out of school to volunteer for each holiday giveaway event. All the kids helped set up and volunteer at each event. 

She kept drilling the message into her young brood over and over throughout the course of the days: I want you to be successful in life, but when you do – you must give back — none of it is any good if you don’t give back. While working those days, she would talk to the kids about the kind of adults she wanted them to grow up to be. She wanted them to know that no matter what your circumstances were, there was always someone, more unfortunate than yourself. She wanted them to learn to always be grateful, always be thankful, and focus on giving – because giving of oneself is really the ultimate gift. 

Thank you Ellen and your family for giving back to the community selflessly. We will always remember and cherish your beautiful example.

A memorial will be held on Saturday, January 16th at the Masonic Ashler Village in Wallingford, CT at a time to be announced.

To Make Donations to benefit her family, please make a contribution to KIEDC in care of the Ellen Elkins Memorial Fund using donate link on the www.KIEDC.com website.

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