By PAOLA BOIVIN
The Arizona Republic

He opens the envelope and coins fall. Three seventy. Three seventy-five. Three eighty.

"Three dollars and eighty cents," Pat Tillman's brother-in-law says. "You get checks with some very big zeros. But it's the ones from the kids who opened their piggy bank that really get you."

He opens another. The wobbly writing suggests an older, trembling hand.

"Lt. Col. Smith," the note says. "Hero," the check says.

Pat Tillman's name still evokes emotions that were untapped for many until April 23, the date we learned the former Arizona State and Cardinals player had died in combat. We were a nation of self-interest and convenience jarred awake by a man who was the personification of altruism.

So imagine being Alex Garwood, Tillman's brother-in-law, and trying to carry forward the soldier's legacy as the executive director of the newly formed Pat Tillman Foundation, a foundation that is one of many Tillman reminders we'll encounter in coming weeks.

There's the Arizona Cardinals training camp that opens in 13 days and a halftime tribute to the player during the team's home opener on Sept. 19. There's the Aug. 11 start of ASU's Camp Tontozona, where Tillman managed to find bliss in grueling two-a-days, and the retirement of his jersey at the Nov. 13 game against Washington State.

"I don't know if you can, really," create a foundation that truly reflects Tillman, said Garwood, 32. "The real answer is we'll just do the best we can."

That's what those closest to Tillman are trying to do, although their wounds are still raw. Tillman's wife, Marie, whose sister Christine is married to Garwood, is on the foundation's board of directors along with Tillman's brother, Kevin, and two of Pat's friends.

"How are they doing? Well, if you have Tillman in your name you're a very strong person," Garwood said. "They lost a husband, a brother, a son, so it's horrible. Would I define it as wallowing in misery? Absolutely not."

Neither Marie nor Kevin is ready to speak publicly. So the face of the foundation is Garwood's. His memorable speech at Tillman's nationally televised memorial service that included a just-as-memorable profanity - "Pat's influence," he said, laughing - introduced us to a funny and mischievous side of Tillman. Now he hopes to introduce us to Tillman's generous side with this foundation.

"He was one of the most amazing people I ever met," Garwood said.

Garwood was close to Tillman but he learned even more about his brother-in-law's generosity after his death. He never knew of his relationship with the late Duff MacDougall, the ASU employee with Down syndrome whom Tillman befriended. Until he met Tillman's professors, Garwood never knew how Tillman regularly engaged other students to participate in class discussions.

It reinforced to him that the Pat Tillman Foundation has a purpose.

The foundation's catch phrase is "mind, body and spirit" and its goal is to "carry forward his legacy by inspiring and supporting others striving to promote positive change in themselves and the world around them."

The long-term goals are still being shaped, but in the short term, the foundation wants to give college and professional athletes the tools to deliver positive messages to youth. The foundation already has partnered with ASU and the Cardinals, and Garwood has had conversations with the NFL.

His biggest challenge is learning the delicate juggling act of being both a philanthropist and salesman.

He'll figure it out. Tillman was a good teacher.

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For information on the foundation and on how to make a donation, go to www.pattillmanfoundation.net or write to P.O. Box 20053, San Jose, Calif. 95160.

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