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Memorial funds are good way to honor Steigers
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The death of a friend and loved one is never easy to accept, but when
it happens suddenly to a young person with his best years yet before
him, it is something else again. There’s no chance to say good-bye, and a thousand questions linger about what might have been. Quick as lightning, a hole is torn in the fabric of life. People are left with an empty feeling. That’s how it was with the passing of Dylan Steigers, a 21-year-old who left his home state of Montana last year to become a part of Eastern Oregon University and the La Grande community. No one would have thought it could happen, not in a million years, but Steigers lost his life playing in a Saturday football scrimmage. He took a blow to the head, developed a subdural hematoma and died the next day at St. Alphonsus in Boise. In the wake of the tragedy, Steigers has been eulogized by many as a talented football player, a forward-looking student, and, most of all, as a devoted family man. No doubt, he was all that. With his partner, Liz Apostol, Steigers had a 2-year-old daughter, London, and from all accounts the child was the center of his life. The little one left without a father makes this incident doubly sad. Liz and London, Steigers’ parents Tim and Cindy Steigers, his classmates, his friends inside and outside football still have not recovered from the shock of his death, and they never fully will. For them, the memory of this terrible thing will last forever. The Observer extends deepest condolences. Death made a blind and unreasoning call on the football field that day, and the decision will not be undone. Perhaps the best thing anyone can do now is to make Steigers’s passing count for something. It’s been well-publicized that a memorial scholarship in Steigers’s name has been set up, to benefit an EOU football player. Surely Steigers would like it if that scholarship grows, and helps some other young person find a way through life. People can donate by contacting the EOU Foundation. Additionally, money is being collected in Steigers’s hometown of Missoula, to help with with medical and funeral costs and start an education fund for London. Donations can be made by contacting 406-550-1003 and referencing the Dylan Steigers Benefit Fund. We encourage all who can to open their pocketbooks, and with them, their hearts. It’s one good way to make sure that this life so capriciously taken won’t be lost in vain. |
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