On March 16, 2002 in the middle of a blinding snow storm Wesley Cowan pushed his way in to the world just weeks after Salt Lake City's Winter Olympic Games. For his father, Wesley was a dream realized. The golden-boy first son of television's Reed Cowan, was given the name of Reed's childhood best friend and grandfather...Wesley Jenson.

Wrapped in a baby-blue blanket, Wesley Cowan came home to a small snow-covered cottage the next day with icicles melting under the glow of a spring sun.

His days were filled with dancing, singing and laughter. Wesley loved to sing I AM A CHILD OF GOD. Wesley changed the lyrics to another of his favorite songs, YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE to say: YOU MAKE ME HAPPY, WHEN SKIES ARE GREAT.

Wesley was our sunshine for forty-eight months and thirty-eight days...until an accident took our sunshine away and made our skies a whole lot less great.

The pain and the trauma of his immediate passing left those who loved him most with broken hearts and an emptiness only other parents who have lost a child can ever know. Wesley was the gift we had to give back.

During the dark days after Wesley's passing, the process of turning pain in to purpose began to happen. The person Wesley called "my Gregory" suggested death and decimation experienced in Utah could be reversed somehow in our hearts by going where death and decimation is tragically commonplace and changing those places through education. It was on this day through inspiration that the WESLEY SMILES COALITION came to life with a determined mission and motto:

"LIFTING THE LIVES OF UNDER-CELEBRATED CHILDREN EVERYWHERE."

As founders of the Wesley Smiles Coalition, Reed Cowan & Gregory Abplanalp believe that human suffering is due in great part to times when we as members of the human family under-celebrate any human being and the inherent worth each person brings to this planet.

We are about celebrating people and especially the youngest members of our human community.

Whether building schools in developing countries or making schools happy places to be through bully-proofing, all that we do is now and forever dedicated to another of Wesley Cowan's mantras: