2002

• Rob Emrich sells his car and stocks to found the Keren Rebecca Emrich Cancer Research Foundation (DBA Road of Life) in memory of his sister.
  
  
• Matt Youngner and Rob are the original workers.  Road of Life’s original mission: to raise funds for cancer research.

2003

• Emrich walks 312 miles from Cincinnati to Cleveland during Bicentennial Walk.
  
  
• Road of Life hires Matt Youngner as its first full-time staff employee
  
  
• Road of Life changes its mission to cancer prevention for children.
  
  
• The Keren Rebecca Emrich Cancer Research Foundation changes its name to the Keren Emrich Foundation.
  
  
• Road of Life’s cancer prevention curriculum is first piloted in Columbus Public Schools, delivered by  volunteer mentors from The Ohio State University.

2004

• Students from across Ohio participate in the Road of Life: Ohio 2004 relay walk from Cincinnati to Cleveland to raise awareness of cancer prevention.
  
  
• Version 1.0 of the Road of Life cancer prevention curriculum is released.  The curriculum is released and piloted in Columbus Public Schools.
  
  
•  Rob’s brother Michael Emrich founds a Road of Life student group at Ohio State University, which recruits students to teach the Road of Life curriculum to children.
  
  
• Road of Life is awarded $120,000 AmeriCorps*VISTA grant allowing the organization to hire five full-time employees.

2005

• Road of Life partners with mentoring organization City Year Columbus to deliver its cancer prevention curriculum during City Year’s after school programs.
  
  
• The Columbus Foundation awards Road of Life a $15,000 grant for its cancer prevention programs.

2006

• The Ohio Compassion Capital Project awards Road of Life a $10,000 ‘sub award’ grant  grant to fund the Open Source Initiative
  
  
• Road of Life becomes the official health content partner of TeachForward, an open-source teacher resource and the first organization out of the Reynolds Social Entrepreneurship Program at Harvard University.
  
  
• Road of Life launches the Open Source Initiative to make its cancer prevention curriculum available for free to educators nationwide, and to allow the curriculum to be revised by educators that use it.
  
  
• Road of Life releases version 2.0 of its cancer prevention curriculum for children.