Luke and Ryan Remembered at DeLaVeaga Elementary School

Above – Ribbons filled out by students as a tribute to Luke and Ryan who perished in a plane crash on July 7.

Students assembled tonight to remember Luke and Ryan by creating ribbons and tying them to the fence in front of the school.  I talked to many of their teachers  and fellow students.  They all had something special to say.  A box of blank ribbons is sitting by the fence for any student to fill out and the ribbons should remain for quite a while.  The school is at 1145 Morrissey Blvd, Santa Cruz, CA.  When I was a kid, we used to practice base ball there after school.

It’s really healing to go to these events.  All of us who are suffering need to keep getting together and talking, share memories and sharing stories.  Many times throughout the day, it just hits me and I break down to cry.

I talked with an eloquent young man named Collin.  He told me about Luke and his Ham radio interests.  Collin had a radio to give to Luke, but he never got around to giving it to him.  He felt bad.  Collin is such an eloquent speaker.  He was interviewed by KOIN news which will be on at 11pm.  If the video is posted on the web, can someone please post a link in the comments?

I talked to Jose Queyedo, assistant principle.  He said Luke was the top seller of magazines.  For his prize, he got a limo ride, but he forgot about it.  Luke asked Jose if students could be reminded before hand.  Jose responded, “I gave you a note yesterday.”  Luke said, “Yes, but each day is a new day and you need to remind them THAT day.”  Jose got a big kick out of it.

I talked to Angela (a teacher or similar at the school) who told me about the time that his copy of Moby Dick was stolen.  He came up to Angela and said, “I’ve recovered my book and I have the suspect.”  Angela says to the suspect, “Are you the suspect?”  The boy sheepishly responded “Yes.”  Luke was able to solve the crime because there is a boy who eats a lot of sting cheese and after Luke found the book he found what looked like a grease imprint on one of the pages that looked like it was a week old and it was left by a piece of string cheese.

I talked to Amy, one of Ryan’s teachers, who told me Ryan always had a story ready about how he had been to Africa, or how he was able to grow moss on sea shells using some strange contraption.  She said that she ended up with a lot of Ryan’s stuff in her desk because he was playing with it when he wasn’t supposed to.  She said that Luke had a lot of right answers and that when she needed a little help, she would say “what did you come up with Luke?”  Luke had a reputation for respectfully correcting his teachers on their facts.

Jeff Simpson was Luke’s math and engineering teacher.  He said for their bridge project where you build a load-bearing bridge and load it until it breaks, Luke beat the next best student by 40 pounds.  Only the teacher had a better bridge.  Luke would always be asking a lot of questions and Jeff was frequently stumped, “I don’t know Luke, ask me about that tomorrow.”  Jeff was also his surfing instructor and Luke  was never afraid to go after a wave – they had a lot of fun together.

I talked to a young boy who was a friend of Ryan’s.  He said the had a lot of fun playing with Logos.  I asked if he had his own set and the response I got was, “Of course!”  I guess that’s a dumb question to ask a kid…

Service is tomorrow and I hope to see you there.  There’s a rumor that there isn’t enough room at the church and some folks are staying home.  Not true.  The church seats 1700 and the church has never before filled to capacity for such a service despite many high profile funerals.