Fundraiser to honor one boy and help another
Ammon Blake is greatly missed by family, friends and the community of Saratoga Springs. On May 25, he died in a car accident while a group of friends were waiting for him at Utah Lake. Now, those friends and more want to honor Ammon, who was 16 years old, by helping another boy in the community with a fundraiser to be held on Oct. 25.
“For a lot of these kids, they have been friends since before elementary school,” said Melissa Brown, a family friend. “My daughter has been friends with Ammon since sixth grade. They are such a great group of kids and have been such good friends all of these years.”
Brown said that Blake was kind to everyone and is loved by his friends and classmates at Westlake High School. “Everybody, even those who didn’t know him well, was just devastated at the high school,” she said.
A lot of these kids are having a hard time knowing how to navigate the world without their friend, according to Brown. “They have a lot of grief. So, we have talked about what we could do to preserve his memory and do things that he would do, to carry on his name and honor him,” she said. “We decided that we would, around the time of his birthday every year, celebrate his birthday and do a fundraiser. We will find someone every year to help.”
That help this year will be for 8-year-old Ezra Crossley, also of Saratoga Springs, who is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. The funds raised will go to Ezra’s family to help pay medical expenses. “We were able to sit down with Ezra and his family and he got to tell us all about himself and the things that he’s battling. He’s determined that he’s going to beat this,” Brown said. “The interesting thing is the two boys just live a couple of streets apart, but didn’t know each other.”
The All For Ammon fundraiser will be held on Oct. 25 at MOD Pizza, 617 N. Redwood Road in Saratoga Springs. “A lot of the employees knew and went to school with Ammon,” Brown said. Twenty percent of all proceeds from the entire day will be donated to Ezra and his family.
Additionally, a silent auction, with donations from local businesses, will be held at the event as well as online on the ALLFORAMMON Event Facebook page. Some of Ammon’s classmates have designed shirts that will also be sold.
The last English paper that Blake wrote before passing away seemed to include an important message for those who would be left behind, according to Brown. “This paper circulated through all of us. It was almost a message that he was leaving for everyone. The paper was about time and about no one should waste any minutes,” she said. “It’s pretty profound.”
A quote from Blake’s writing will be on the shirts. The quote reads, “There are exactly 86,400 seconds in a day. No one should be wasting any of that precious time.”
The fundraising in Ammon’s name won’t stop after this one. The next goal is to reach out to local businesses to set up a scholarship in Ammon’s name. Then, future birthdays will be celebrated by helping others.
“Ammon will continue to touch people’s lives,” Brown said.