[posted by Luke’s Dad]
When we lived at Maplebrook School for three years when I taught there, Luke had just started high school. The students at Maplebrook were all around the same age as Luke. Both Luke and Spencer became acutely aware very quickly of how blessed they were, and how easy it would have been for their lives to have turned out like the lives of those Maplebrook students. It was a boarding school for severely learning disabled students. They were far from home, far from their families, and often felt very alone. We lived in the boys dorm, and Luke and Spencer both would help the teenage boys with doing some of the things that we all take for granted. They would help them with homework, help them tie their shoes, and teach them how to tie a perfect Windsor Knot in their necktie. There was a sports program there, but there were very few schools to play against and games often went overlooked. One winter, Luke started to notice that basketball games were getting cancelled because they could not find referees to ref the games. The school didn’t pay very much, and refereeing a basketball game for a bunch of learning disabled, Asperger, anger-issue laden kids was not something that evidently appealed to certified referees in the area. So Luke took it upon himself to go to the administration and tell them that he would referee their games. Luke felt that these kids deserved better than that. He also knew that he could supplement his income by refereeing all the home games. They told him that he was not allowed to because he wasn’t certified. So Luke found an online course, taught himself, passed the certification test, bought all the uniforms and gear he needed with his own money, and became a basketball referee. I didn’t even know about his plan until he had passed the test. He did it completely independently. To me, that always had said so much about Luke. He saw a need, and he filled it. He saw an opportunity, and he took it. And there were no more cancelled basketball games at Maplebrook that year (2010).
