Through Luke’s journey with cancer, God did great things through Luke. One of those things was the desire to help others in the hospital. He spoke many times about the things that made him happy or brightened his day and made many plans of helping others when he got out of the hospital. God gave Luke such a loving and giving heart through all of this. One evening at the hospital, Luke began to cry saying that he felt sorry for all the kids in the hospital. He felt like he was doing so much better than they were. He told me then, he wanted to do something for them and their families.
The first desire he had was to get a Siberian Husky with blue eyes and name him “Scout”. He wanted to have him trained to be a therapy dog so that he could visit the children’s hospitals. His inspiration and motivation to do this was his favorite dog, a husky named Luna. Luke had many therapy dogs visit him, but there was none that brought joy to Luke like Luna. Several times when Luke wasn’t feeling well or just feeling down, one of the nurses would call the owner of Luna to come visit Luke and from the moment Luna walked through his hospital room, Luke’s face would light up and he would grin from ear to ear. Luna brought so much joy and happiness so that inspired Luke to want to bring joy to others in the same way.
Luke also had a desire to deliver care packages to families that find themselves weeks and months in the hospital. The care packages may include toiletries, small games and toys, books, coloring books and crayons, snacks, blankets, socks, rolls of quarters for the vending machines, lotion, chap stick, and any item to make their stay a little easier.
During Luke’s hospital stay, he started a Nerf gun collection. When he realized Nerf guns brought him so much happiness, he decided when he was released from the hospital, he wanted to have a LukeStrong Nerf Gun Party. He wanted to bring enough Nerf guns where kids could pick out 2-3 of them. His favorite food was pizza, so he wanted to provide pizza and Nerf guns. He wanted it to be a huge party. So, our plan is to have a Nerf gun party twice a year at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.
We would also like this foundation to be able to support families of children and young adults fighting all types of cancer financially whether it be for medical bills, traveling expenses, food, utilities, rent, or car payments. We are dedicated to minimizing the burdens that so many families face during long term illnesses.
I believe God allows us to go through things to help others. In 2 Corinthians 1:4, it says “He gives us comfort in all our troubles. Then we can comfort other people who have the same troubles. We give the same kind of comfort God gives us.