How the brother of a Twin Cities girl killed in a crash is honoring her legacy
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MINNESOTA (WCCO) — It’s been 18 months, but the pain is as fresh as ever for the Twin Cities community of West Tonka. Lilyana “Lily” Loycano, 11, was killed while riding to school with her family. A distracted driver was charged in that crash.
As you can imagine, the pain goes on for her family. Now, brother Jaxon Loycano is taking his grief into his high school classroom, and way beyond.
Jaxon Loycano is in DECA at Westonka High School, a class where kids create their own businesses. At first, he says he took it lightly.
“I was told to do it, so I didn’t really know what to expect of it,” said Jaxon Loycano.
But then everything in his life got serious. They were in a crash, and he lost his little sister. He says some nights he just thinks about her.
“Probably just her presence because she would always want to like make people smile and bring kindness to their room,” said Jaxon Loycano.
So that got him and his DECA business class partners thinking.
“It was definitely like, we didn’t really know what we wanted to do, like we had like a bunch of ideas and we were like, we don’t, like none of these we really like care about that much, and then like that one hit and we’re like, yes,” said classmate and partner Isabelle Markle.
They launched Live Like Lily.
“We’re continuing Lily’s legacy by just bringing people together and bringing the same joy to them that it seemed that she brought to everyone around her,” said classmate and partner Ella McClellan.
Lily Loycano donated her organs.
“We’re going to have proceeds from our project and engagement with the community go to organ donation research and road safety research,” said McClellan.
And that emotion has fueled some big results. They had a packed house for their Ripple of Kindness Event, and their pickleball tournament was also a hit.
So they plan to keep these gatherings going for good, rooted in a lesson Jaxon Loycano says we could all learn.
“That the world is a better place with kindness in it,” he said.
And as they head to state competition, they’ll try and win for Lily Loycano, too.
“It kind of gives me the motivation to do better because it’s for her,” said Jaxon Loycano.
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