LEGACY OF COMPASSION
Remembering: Foundation honors young sons who died in fire Giving back: County sheriff deputy, family help children in need
>> The Lukens Foundation 5K Run/Walk next month may be virtual but the mission behind it is as real and authentic as founder Bryan Lukens Sr.’s passion for helping families spend time together while they can.
“There’s a couple of hurdles we had to face in organizing this,” noted Lukens, an Iraq War veteran and Montgomery County sheriff’s deputy, who formed the foundation three years ago with his wife Tracy. “Safety is our main goal. I guess you could say as a board we’re all learning together. The virtual run gave us an idea about participants and hopefully we’ll do an in-person run that will be twice as big. We’re looking to do this as an annual event. We wanted to do it as in-person run this year but unfortunately with COVID we decided to do it virtually and I think that was a good move for us.”
The inspiration for The Lukens Foundation is sadly rooted in a tragic house fire in 2018 that took the lives of Bryan Jr. age 11, and Parker age 6, who were actively involved in the Collegeville area community and youth sports.
As noted on Lukensfoundation. org, Lukens and his wife founded the organization in memory of their sons and are aware of the social benefits that are gained by a family’s involvement in the local community: “We all know families whose children have the passion and desire to participate in organized sports, but their families cannot afford the membership fees or equipment. Bryan and Tracy are extremely grateful and humbled by the outpouring of support received from the community during their tragedy and throughout their recovery. They were inspired to take action and give back to the community that embraced and supported them by alleviating the same or similar challenges that other members of the community face.”
All proceeds from the run will benefit children in the community who want to participate in
sports and other activities, but it goes beyond sports, Lukens said.
“My whole thing is yes, we give grants to families that need it. I’d rather have them save that money and experience things together. I used to be able to do that with my boys. Unfortunately I’m not able to do that anymore,” he said. “We’re a nonprofit foundation and provide grants to families that apply and as a board we do our best to support parents so that their children can continue to participate in a sport, or try a different sport. Sometimes you run into single moms, or parents that were together and are now divorced, or parents that are similar to us, with accidents that may have occurred. I know what it’s like to work three jobs to be able to support our kids in all sports, soccer, wrestling, baseball. It gets expensive and I know I spent a lot of time working to provide that and I did miss out on spending time with the kids. So for me to have this foundation it’s kind of like helping my two boys, Bryan Lukens Jr., and Parker, who were always there to help others. So we’re trying to find a purpose and make them proud of me in a way. For us the idea is to support families that need it so they can take their kids out and do family events together. Our daughter Soffia does competitive cheer and we do cheer clinics once a year for girls from age 5 all the way up to 16 that want to try it. We also try to do things as a foundation that our daughter is interested in so she doesn’t feel left out.”
Grant applications, which can be found on the website, do go a long way in financing athletic endeavors for kids, “but it’s about the parents spending the quality time with their kids with that money. So it goes beyond sports. The purpose is not using the money for your child, the purpose is to use that money you just saved for family activities and to spend time together.
“I actually have an art degree and I was always very athletic, but you kind of forget about the art,” Lukens said. “The foundation helps academically with sports, and just supporting youth. I will do anything I can to support kids in the Perkiomen Valley, and not only the Perkiomen Valley but I would love to branch out and get bigger. That was always my motto to my kids, to be humble and do the right thing.”
The run will take place between May 14th through 23rd. The fee for children under age 16 is $20; adults, $40. All participants will receive a T-shirt and other goodies, which will be picked up in advance of the event.
“The virtual run and walk is a week long, so they have the whole week to do it in the safety of their neighborhood or park that they choose. This is something that I thought very hard about what pattern of an event we could do where people feel safe and still feel good about what they’re supporting. We wanted to have something that the parents can do with their children and get them involved, so that meant have it for a week long … when they want to do it, on their time, and where they want to do it. The app Race Joy that tracks your mileage and time and gets put into a data base that shows all the runners and their times. It’s not a competition,” Lukens added, “but we give prizes in a dozen categories in different age groups.”
Prizes include gift certificates for family activities like miniature golf and for merchandise from Five Below and the Running Company.
“I just appreciate everyone signing up for an organization that was just started three years ago. It’s something that had to come together where it works for everybody that signs up. It’s about spending relationship time with parents and their children, that’s the most important aspect of this. Spend that time together because you never know if something may happen tomorrow that you’re not prepared for.”
Lukens designed the foundation’s compelling logo himself.
“The color orange represents Perkiomen Valley and it was also the boys’ favorite color,” he said. “The white wolf symbolizes the family as a pack. We always had a lot of kids at our house and traveled with our two big dogs and we always welcomed everybody to our pack. The white wolf is kind of a spiritual image.”
Growing the foundation in three short years was something he could never accomplish on his own, Lukens admitted.
“I couldn’t do it without my family, the board members and the people that supported us when the accident occurred,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pay back everybody that supported us, but when you lose your house and your two boys you try to find a purpose, and to see how many people in Montgomery County supported us, this is something in my heart I wanted to do. And not only that, I really wanted to see all families get every opportunity that they deserve. We’re a close family and the values I have I try to push onto other families. I was adopted at 5 and still trying to find my way even though we lost everything in that house fire. I want families to take a step back and enjoy what they have every single day.”
For more information and to register for the run, visit Lukensfoundation.org