Celebrating Logan: A community says goodbye

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Tears and laughs. Favorite memories shared. A community coming together in love and caring and support.

About 1,300 people packed into the Charles City Middle School gym Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the short life of Logan Luft, a 15-year-old Charles City boy who was fatally injured in an ATV accident on July 4.

There were plenty of tissues dabbing moist eyes, but there were also smiles as the gathering listened to accolades and anecdotes shared by two of his teachers and coaches, and by his pastor, Robert Williams, who led the service.

Two themes dominated, witnessed by scores of T-shirts exclaiming Donate Life and #LuftTuff.

The first acknowledged Logan’s gift, initially saving five other lives through donations of his heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas, and potentially many more as other tissues are used in the months and years ahead.

His family — mother and father Wendy and Leonard, and siblings Landon and Lilly — have embraced organ donation, noting Logan’s choice to check the organ donor box on his driver’s permit, and they have used the tragedy of Logan’s death as an opportunity to help others and spread the word about the gift of life.

The second theme paid tribute to Logan’s tenacity as an athlete, setting records and inspiring teammates in multiple sports, but especially cross country and wrestling.

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Erik Hoefer, Logan’s middle school cross country coach and a friend of the family, recounted how the boy had decided to join the cross country team.

Although Logan had been a wrestling star since a very young age, competing at the state and national level, cross country was something new.

“During the two years that Logan was on the cross country team …, he broke a lot of things. Namely records and bones,” Hoefer said.

Logan broke a toe weeks before practice began in seventh grade, but was ready when the season began. He started by placing second in his first race, “and as the season went on, Logan got better and better and better. And so did the team,” Hoefer said.

“Logan inspired the team and the team inspired him, to run faster and faster,” Hoefer said. The entire team was lowering its times meet after meet.

At the state cross country meet Logan set a Charles City middle school record and helped the seventh grade team win the state championship.

“Logan was a leader,” Hoefer said. “His favorite method of leading was by example. He expected greatness from his teammates and his coaches and his teachers in everything we did.”

Teacher and coach Ryan Rahmiller read a letter that Logan wrote to himself in language arts class at the end of last school year, outlining his high school goals, including being a four-time state wrestling champion, folkstyle national champion and Fargo national champion, as well as his fishing goals.

He said he was excited about “the high school ladies, too.”

Logan also wrote to himself, “Don’t ever back down from anybody. Always stand up for God, your family, your friends and yourself. You’re a bad man — don’t let anybody tell you different. Remember that you’re dangerous. Sincerely, Logan Luft.”

Rahmiller described Logan as “reliable, goal-drive, hilarious, well-spoken, courteous, genuine, invested, constantly excited, ambitious, positive. He loved people and interaction …, he rallied around the less fortunate and he set high standards.”

“But the adjective that has kept coming to me was that he was giving,” Rahmiller said.

“Logan was ‘all in’ in everything that he chose to do. The remarkable thing is he will continue to give, through his choice to be an organ donor,” he said.

There were numerous law enforcement and emergency services personnel at the celebration of life, sharing a camaraderie with Logan’s father, Lenny, who is a member of the Charles City police force.

Fellow Charles City officers, members of the county Sheriff’s Department and state troopers, and their spouses, as well as AMR Ambulance crew members, filled several rows of chairs, and dozens of police and emergency vehicles led the procession to Riverside Cemetery after the service.

The motorcade passed through an arch created by raised firetruck ladders, draped with an American flag.

Pastor Williams, of The Bridge Church, concluded the service by telling how Logan and his family had recently become members of the church, and how Logan had recommitted his life to Jesus Christ.

“As you mourn, I hope you can celebrate, too, today,” Williams said. “That’s what Lenny and Wendy would want, but especially, after everything I’ve heard today about Logan, that’s what he would want.”

Williams said, “I can only imagine how many of you are wrestling with the ‘why.’ Why would God allow this to happen? Why would God take such an awesome kid away from us?

“I encourage you to do everything you can to avoid trying to answer the question of why, because it won’t get you anywhere,” Williams said. “What I would encourage you to do, though, is to take confidence in God’s perfect plan. Because that’s what Wendy and Lenny are doing, and that’s what Lilly and Landon are doing.”