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WEST JORDAN — The Van Leuven house is filled with laughter, squealing from 11-month old Kyle, who was born weeks after the death of his 4-year-old brother, Ethan. It is obvious that the Van Leuven house is full of siblings who adore each other. Throughout the house there are pictures of Ethan, who is still with them in spirit.
"It's healing to talk about him, and that people remember him, and recognize he's still a part of our family and a part of us," said Ethan's mother, Jennifer Van Leuven.
One year ago today, Ethan Van Leuven lost his battle with leukemia. In the week leading up to his death, people from all over the world came together to help the Van Leuven family celebrate Halloween, Ethan's birthday and Christmas.
"It's been really neat to look back at the memories and see how much support we got and how much love was shown to us," Jennifer Van Leuven said.
On this one year anniversary of Ethan's death, instead of dwelling on his death, Ethan's 15-year-old brother Brayden Palmer had an idea for his Eagle Project — a memorial soccer tournament.
"I like soccer, and we wanted to do something in memory of Ethan and this was a great way to do it, and he liked soccer too," Brayden said.
For the past month, he has been going to businesses gathering donations for those participating in the tournament. And instead of collecting registration fees from the players, Brayden collected toys — hundreds of them.
"It's donations for playrooms and toys for the kids at Primary Children's Hospital," Brayden said. "Ethan was treated at Primary's, and everyone there was amazing, and we want the kids there to have the same stuff Ethan did."
On Friday, Oct. 23, Brayden held a toy drive at Smith's in West Jordan, where customers donated Hot Wheels and other toys. Then on Saturday, Oct. 24, the toys kept coming during the Ethan Van Leuven Memorial Soccer Tournament held at Constitution Park in West Jordan.
"I didn't expect it to be this big," he said as 27 teams and their families showed up to play soccer in honor of his little brother. "The whole thing is for him."
Through his efforts, Brayden collected more than 500 toys and other items to be donated to Primary Children's Hospital.
"It was amazing what everybody did," Brayden said. "And it's amazing what they're doing now to help me pay back what people have done for us."
