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Live Like Lucas
The non-profit organization Live Like Lucas was founded in August of 2015 in order to accomplish the goal of empowering youth to spread kindness. Our first official event was on January 16, 2016 where we had over 200 youth as well as adults participate in service projects and random acts of kindness in the Grand Rapids area. We served a pancake breakfast at Park church, made over 100 lunches and hygiene kits and distributed them to the poor along Division avenue. We made breakfast and did activities with the children at Hope Community, which is temporary housing for single moms and their children. We went to nursing homes and played bingo and bowling with the elderly. We distributed fifty 10.00 gift cards at Meijer as a random act of kindness. The result of just this one day was astounding. The volunteers had their eyes opened to situations that they had never been in before and met people unlike they had ever encountered. They saw people in poverty as real, worthy, human beings who weren’t just lazy. They saw the elderly, as one student put it “peppy and funny and mischievous.” They connected with people who were far outside of the Forest Hills “bubble.” And they wanted to go back. They wanted to do more. They asked, “When can we do this again?” Live Like Lucas is not just about spreading kindness out on the streets of Grand Rapids but also in our schools. We are currently researching programs and speakers to encourage our youth to practice kindness EVERY DAY- not just to their own friends but to those who feel alone and disenfranchised. We want to encourage friendships across all social, racial, and socio-economic boundaries. Teaching kindness also needs to start young. We are working on a program with “Lucas puppets” for the social workers to use to teach lessons on being kind to others and encourage conversation about sadness and loneliness and bullying. The kids will be able to put letters to Lucas in a mailbox so they can express their feelings and in turn the social workers can address these issues. One especially powerful method of learning about kindness in a global way is through mission projects. Our goal for next summer is to fund or partially fund at least 10 trips to Guatemala for kids who would otherwise be unable to go due to financial concerns. Lucas went 2 years ago with my grandparents and it was life changing for him to see the utter poverty and lack of medical care that was available for these people they visited in remote villages. He was prompted to really think about what his future looked like- he had planned on going into the medical field and now felt drawn to the mission field. Live Like Lucas has a vision of youth who look outside of themselves, look outside of wealth and power and popularity as goals and really see the world as how it is- full of hurting people. Even a small act of kindness can turn someone’s day around. It may even change their life.-
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Monthly Archives: January 2015
darkness
I hope you aren’t reading this with a faint heart. Today was the worst day of my life. Yesterday was a blur, I was floating a cloud of people, caffeine, adreneline, disbelief. Today I am a puddle on the ground. It tried to go to his funeral planning session and I couldn’t breathe. I was shaking, I was nauseous. I had to leave and as I walked out I crumpled on the sidewalk and wailed and screamed. The reality of picking out a casket for your child is one of those things I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I wish I could have been stabbed instead or beat in the head with a baseball bat. I just want to sink down in the ground and be gone. I don’t want to die because I have four beautiful alive children that need me. I just don’t know I’m ever going to be able to be a parent to them. I’m not whole anymore. I’m broken. Shattered.
Nightmare
Yesterday was horrific. Today is worse. I’m supposed to meet with a funeral home today. I don’t think I can. I am a shell. A void of nothingness. There is nothing left of me. He was my everything.
How do we go on
I never, ever thought I would write a blog. I am afraid to post on facebook, that no one will care or see it. This is for my own mental health and if it helps anyone at all, it is worth it.
Today I lost my child. I keep hoping, praying, begging that I will wake up from this dream. It is simply not possible. This morning that beautiful 6 foot four and a half inch boy walked out my door vibrant and alive. With a brilliant mind and compassionate heart, ready to face the world. To change the world. He wanted to be a doctor. He wanted to help. He wanted to heal. He did not deserve this. Please God, Please I beg you let this not be true. It is simply too much to bear. No one should ever, ever, ever, ever have to go through this. There are not words in the English language to describe the pain. The anguish. There is a giant, gaping black hole where my heart used to be. Where Lucas used to be. He was my everything. As my sister said, my guardian angel. I truly believe he was too good to be on this earth. He was an angel. My biggest fear is that his life, his loss of life will be for nothing. I desperately want it to mean something. All I can hope is that his legacy will live on and on. That somehow somewhere there is a reason.