About Magnolia Son

Welcome to Magnolia Son.

My name is Rae Andreacchio. I am the founder of Magnolia Son, but most importantly I am the mother of a wonderful young man named Christian Shane Andreacchio.

He was born November 4, 1992, and blessed me by sharing the next 21 years of his life with me. He died February 26, 2014 leaving a tremendous void in my life and the lives of his family and friends. One of the greatest fears of a parent who loses a child is that their child will be forgotten, and the facets of their personality that made them so special to their family and friends will be lost in the movement of time. I am one of those parents who became consumed by the fear of Christian being forgotten.

As I struggled with losing Christian, I also struggled for a way to hold on to Christian. As a result of this painful process, I re-discovered qualities of Christian that I had overlooked and taken for granted in the hustle and bustle of daily living. In talking to his friends, some I had never met, I found that he was thought of as loyal and fun loving. A friend “you would want to have your back”. A friend who would fight for you when you couldn’t fight for yourself. A friend who was generous and willing to give away a prized possession just because his friend needed it. A friend who would make you laugh at all costs, who would jump off boat houses in the middle of the night just for the thrill of it….. A friend who had that special quality to stay your friend even if you didn’t talk to each other for months at a time and your paths had led you in opposite directions.

Talking to his co-workers they described a guy who was “a great boss” at 21 years old. A guy who worked hard but played harder. A guy who was respected for his creativity on the job and his willingness to help out the “green hands” instead of “putting them down”. A guy who would set his boots on fire to get a smile out of a co-worker and friend. A guy who was ambitious and wanted to be the youngest captain ever at the tugboat company he worked for.

A considerate guy who would send his mother pictures every few days of sunrises and sunsets along the rivers he traversed just so he could share the beauty with her.

Talking to his brother and sister and watching as our family attempted to acclimate to the loss of one of its members, I realized for the first time that our family revolved around Christian’s larger than life personality, his smile, his sense of adventure, his total disregard for norms, his need to hug and kiss and show physical affection so unlike most of his family. His joy in harassing and challenging his mother to leave her comfort zone. He made it almost cool to be seen with his very uncool mother. 🙂 Genuinely enjoying attending concerts, movies and going out to eat with her or his entire family.

The idea of starting a non-profit organization was the obvious choice to keep not only Christian’s memory but his spirit of living alive.

I wanted to do something that would make him proud and get a smile out of him. Christian had grown up giving his outgrown clothes and shoes to kids who were not as fortunate as he. He thought it was normal for kids to be brought to our home to play with his toys or for him to entertain. I would like to take credit for his generosity and say that it was my exposing him to children who had not had it as good as he had that made him have a generous soul, but I really think that was just Christian. Knowing this, I am certain that he would be most pleased with his name being associated with helping kids who need financial assistance in order to attain their dreams and to live their lives large.

After much deliberating, a name was formed…… Magnolia Son.

Magnolia representing the company who gave him a chance at 18 years old with no experience and helped shape him into a “great boss”. The company that gave him not a posse but a crew, literally a boatload of friends who spent more time with him than his family the last 2-1/2 years of his life. Magnolia Marine graciously loaned us the first half of their company’s name. Coincidentally, the word also represents his home state of Mississippi, the South and all the things that Christian loved as part of the South – jacked up trucks with loud horns, mud-boggin’, dirt roads, and drinking around the bonfire. We added “Son” to the end of the name to honor Christian’s role in our family.

And so, this project, Magnolia Son, was created with a combination of Christian’s generosity of spirit, his love of life and his recognition of others’ needs. We have very large boots to fill!

So how could we create something that would encompass all that was Christian? That was an almost impossible task.

Initially, I tried to hire someone to come up with a logo that ultimately evolved on its own from the people who loved him most. A culmination of a tattoo sketch from a very special person in his life, an anchor representing his love of the water and his “other family” his crew on his boat the Katherine Berry. An infinity sign to represent Christian’s presence in our family and the love we all shared as a family… together and lastly, but definitely not least, the words LIVE LIFE LARGE running through the middle of the infinity sign to boldly state Christian’s life intention and the example he set for everyone around him.

Christian was not much for reading and studying or really anything academic, but he had gained a worldly philosophy that he oftentimes shared with me which drove me crazy at the time:……”It is what it is Mom.” No matter what happened, his philosophy somehow fit the situation, just as it fits this website, this organization, and the mission that we are striving for.

Our Mission Statement:

To provide appropriate footwear and clothing for children in need with emphasis placed on children in state custody (DHS) in order to meet their basic needs and facilitate improving their self esteem.