Balloons are released Tuesday in Tyler in honor of Chad Choice, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1991.

Family and friends released balloons Tuesday evening in Tyler as they remembered and celebrated what would have been the 39th birthday of Chad Choice, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1991.

“We remember him always. We do something … closed doors always whether it’s as a family or individually,” said Choice’s older sister, Angela Choice-Jefferson. “I felt like it was just time for our family to step out and share resources that we’ve all received to heal from this tragic situation.”

Choice was kidnapped from his home, and it was not until 1996 when his killer, Patrick Horn, was in the Smith County Jail on other charges that the family found out Choice’s fate.

Horn was sentenced to death for the murder, but he was already facing a separate life sentence in Atlanta, Georgia, according to past reports.

Through releasing balloons Tuesday at the old Mamie G. Griffin Elementary School where Choice attended, “We’re exchanging everything that could be negative or still hindering us — we want to release that. We’re going to let it go,” Choice-Jefferson said. “In letting it go, we want to pull down from this great universe that our God has created for us all of the energy, all of the strength, all of the peace and all of the unity that he can provide us so that we may forever remember his name, forever say his name and not just his name, but other children.”

Though his life was short, Choice did a lot, Choice-Jefferson said.

“He learned a lot, he saw a lot. He was happy all the way up to that time,” she said. “He did what he wanted to do.”

Choice’s former elementary school principal, the Rev. Orenthia Mason, said Choice and his family have always been special to her. Through the years, the two families grew up together, she said.

“Today, to remember him is to remember the joy he brought to all of us and then to remember how precious it is to love children every day,” Mason said. “We should not ever forget those that we love. We should never forget even the hurt and the pain because we grow from that, so we look forward to the day when we shall see him face to face when we all get to heaven.”

Choice-Jefferson said their mother would have done anything to allow her brother to live out his “visions and dreams” through any type of activity.

That’s one reason why the family is working to launch the Chad Choice Family Foundation to help other families and children obtain their dreams, she said.

Extracurricular activities can be costly, and the foundation’s goal is to connect families to resources in Tyler and Smith County to find support, she said.

Choice’s mother, Karen, also used the tragedy for something positive through the formation of C.H.A.D.’S House, a nonprofit organization that provided a temporary home for women and children in need.

While the organization dissolved after the death of Choice’s mother, Choice-Jefferson said the family looks forward to getting involved in helping the community again through the new foundation.

“I felt that our families needed to show a unified front because there are other families that have gone through a tragic situation just like ours, and even more so from 1991 up to this very day,” Choice-Jefferson said. “If we don’t share and give back the way our ancestors taught, (the loss of Chad) is in vain, and Chad’s life is not in vain.”

The Chad Choice Family Foundation looks to work with the Crisis Response Ministry in Tyler.

“By your example, even here today, we are going to be able to reach out to other individuals, other families that are going through the tragedy that you as a family and friends went through so many years ago,” Crisis Response Ministry Executive Director Jim McKee said during Tuesday’s balloon release.

Crisis Response Ministry provides counseling, crisis intervention, grief support, “needed hugs” and much more, McKee said.

“Crisis Response Ministry is dedicated to racing out and meeting the spiritual, emotional, physical and practical needs of individuals and families who have been impacted by crime,” he said.

In working with the Chad Choice Family Foundation, McKee said he is hopeful to see a need met in the community through the Choice family providing these resources that helped them through a time of need.

McKee said he met Choice-Jefferson months ago by accident, and it was from that meeting that they realized they had common ground: “Her desire to grieve over the loss of her brother so many years ago, and our organization being able to bring those resources in to help individuals and families to deal effectively with what they’re going through.”