About the Foundation

Our family lost Nate Silagyi to suicide in 2019, when he was 15 years old.

In the days following Nate’s death, we were faced with innumerable daunting tasks. Second only to bringing our boy home in a box was packing up his things. Packing up a life, however, with all of its love and memories, is not the same as packing a moving box. There’s a sobering yet surreal permanence to knowing the things you are touching may never be seen or held again. Don’t get me wrong, we wanted every piece of Nate that we could grasp. What we didn’t want was to forget this loss was more than ours, alone, and things were… There were so many people who loved him, we chose to share the remaining pieces of him with the people who loved him best. So, we asked his friends to pick a thing or two that was special to them.

Now, I know it might seem a bit odd that we donated Nate’s clothing relatively soon after he died, but choosing to donate Nate’s clothes was a no-brainer for us; Our boy was a giver. His friends told us stories of how they would be walking down a hallway and out of nowhere, he would appear right beside them, laughing and joking. He had an uncanny radar for finding the new kid, and because he remembered what it was like to be the new kid, he would make sure they sat at his table for lunch. At his funeral, we heard stories from kids we’d never met all telling us things like, “he was my only real friend,” or “he always helped me with my math and he never made me feel stupid,” or often “he was hilarious—laughing at his jokes was the best part of my day”.

Nate had a knack for taking care of those in his orbit. So, we were certain, he would want us to give his clothes to someone who needed them. For that reason, his clothes were divvied up between local schools’ clothes closets and the Salvation Army.

I sorted and packed, but Dez, Nate’s Dad, braved the task of driving the clothes to be donated. As would be expected, the Salvation Army had its slogan and logo painted on the sides of its donation bins. When Nate died, the slogan was—and perhaps still is—“DONATE GOODS”. Dez later told me that what he didn’t notice until he drove up to make the drop was that the normal logo, typically written in two different colors—red and black, was missing something. The red bits had faded so significantly on the bin that what was left was “NATE S”. True to form, Nate appeared out of nowhere.

Now, we’re not particularly versed in or even fully convinced of the validity of seeing signs from beyond the grave, and I can’t pretend to know the theology behind whether it was God or Nate who sent us what seemed like divine confirmation, but that sure felt like a message from our boy to Do Good.

So, that’s the mindset we have adopted in our efforts to honor Nate and the legacy of love and inclusion that he left behind: Do. Good.

– Missy Silagyi

This verse is the Nate Silagyi Foundation’s inspiration and call to action. It’s a reminder of our society’s shared responsibility to advocate for the vulnerable and ensure support reaches those who need it most. We aim to put this belief into practice by encouraging others to also take effective, decisive actions that help people directly.