Your Acts of Kindness

One more for Derek’s birthday. The kids had fun delivering pillows to a special boy & his family. He definitely looked like he was glad to get them!

Brandee Lendosky

Today my eight and eleven year old children were recipients of Derek’s random acts of kindness while visiting the Primate House at Vilas Zoo. What a beautiful way to celebrate your son on his birthday. We were truly touched by the surprise and moved by your family’s story. We are inspired to honor your son and are already brainstorming ideas for our own random acts of kindness. What a handsome and talented boy Derek was. Thank you for sharing your story.

Emily Perkins

My friend and I took our children to the zoo today. Two young boys with their mom stopped and gave our children a gift. What a lovely thing to do to commemorate a young person. And a valuable lesson for our children.

Shannon Skolaski

Since Derek can’t open his birthday presents on earth, his brother, sister & close friends are giving 11 strangers his presents for his 11th birthday tomorrow!   Brandee Lendosky

Fennimore is practicing Acts of Kindness this entire week and some houses have notified us of baskets with suckers being left on their doorsteps.

Peyton & I left the house & found this on the door. Thank you to whomever thought of us!!  Brandee Lendosky

We received this today! So sweet! We will be paying it forward.   Brittnee Peterson

We got one too! How Sweet!   Lindsay Jackson

Random acts of kindness…they happen. I knew it. Today we were getting wristbands at the MOA and Derek’s grandma picked us, gave my little man a free wristband… wow. We will pass the kindness on. Sorry for your loss. Thank you so much for making his day:)

Michelle Laffrenzen Siem

Our family was a recipient of “Acts of Kindness for Derek”. We received a card and gift of money when we went to Hayward WI’s Lumberjack Village Mini Golf Course. Our family loves to mini golf together and it was very touching to reveive and very emotional reading the card. We have a son and daughter and it made us realize how fast life can change. We just wanted you all to know we are paying it forward in Superior, WI at Captain J’s Mini Golf where we like to go and spend time as a family. We hope who ever receives the pay it forward will have a wonderful day with their kids and think of Derek. As this Marks the Anniversary of his passing we will be praying for your family from Lake Nebagamon, WI. God Bless.

Renee Teal Anttila

Well,the Good Lord and my Guardian Angel Derek have shined their light on me one more time. I had finished my shift and completed my shopping. I was parking the electric cart I use to get around easier, when one of the managers came up to me and said “can I talk to you, Tom?” My first response, that I regret a little, was to say “I’m off the clock now”.  She said “That’s alright this is a good thing” She handed me the note and card. Well, friends, have you ever seen a big ol’ hairy ugly bear of a man cry? I tried to hold it back till I got alone, I think only one maybe two people saw the watery eyes. You all should see me now that I’m alone and writing this post. Its hard to shut it down.  Thank you friends who blessed me with those kind words. The next time you come in stop and let me know who you are, that is I you wish.

Tom Byrne

About 6-7 months ago I was in New Orleans LA for work. I was driving in the heart of the city when I came to a stop light. At the light there was a young lady holding a sign stating she needed $20 for a bus ticket. She had a desperate and despondent look on her face. For some reason I felt moved to give her a $50 bill. She began to cry as she saw the money. I did not have time to explain anything, but Derek and the Lendosky family were on the forefront if my mind.

Kevin Kenney

As I sit back here and look back at the week before Derek’s passing, I try to recall all the fun things that happened that week. I look back on a day-by-day basis.

Sunday – Derek played in his last baseball game ever. In his final game, and his final at-bat, he was drilled in the left elbow by the pitcher from Bases Loaded Academy. I was standing on the fence by the on-deck circle when it happened and I sprinted right out. As I got to him, he was in terrible pain. I told Derek “I know it hurts buddy and I am sorry that you are in pain. Right now what I need you to do is hold your head up high, don’t hold your arm, and run down to first. When you get there if you need a runner I want you to nod and then I will send one out.” Derek stood up, sprinted to first and as he got there he nodded his head and we sent a runner over. As Derek got back to the dugout the tears started flowing and I held him tight and then handed him off to Brandee. That was the last baseball he ever played. When we buried him a week and a half later, the bruise was still on his arm.

Monday – Monday was his first day of summer school. He was excited to go, just like every day of school as Derek loved to learn. As we have learned, Brynn was also excited as she was in his class. :-)

Tuesday – I took the entire baseball team to the Madison Mallards game. I worked it out ahead of time that one kid would get to play the hitting game where they run the bases and another would get to do the human bowling against the bullpen pitchers. I got the entire team hats and we were on the field and announced before the game. I threw out the first pitch. Was a very interesting time. Keola Cullen got to hit off the tee and slid into home at the end. When it came time for the human bowling, we went out and sat in the bullpen with the pitchers. Derek thought it was amazing. He asked the pitchers a bunch of questions and they interacted with him wonderfully. Then it came time to bowl. On the first attempt he missed the pitchers, but on the second, he hit them and then they weebled and wobbled and came tumbling down for a spare! Was so great to see his smile. On the drive home, Austin Horn and Derek sat in the back seat laughing non-stop. They were pulling their sweatshirts over their heads and “tooting” or something. Many stories can be told from the drive home. But they had a blast at the game and on the ride home.

Wednesday-Friday – There is nothing really different than summer school. No memories that stood out. We had purchased Derek’s gifts for his birthday, a ripstick and an Ipod Touch, and were preparing for the joint birthday party at the pool on Saturday.

Saturday-Allergy Walk – We woke up early to drive to Madison to help support the Nelsons in the allergy walk. Rhi has a nut allergy, so we went there and supported their family by walking with them. Was a beautiful morning. We met John Stoffet from Channel 15 and tried some interesting allergy free foods. I will admit peanut butter tastes better with peanuts. :-) After the event we hustled home.

Saturday-Birthday Party – We had rented out the pool for the kids’ birthday party. They invited a bunch of their friends. Derek was an amazing swimmer and so daring off the boards. That afternoon I spent a lot of time throwing kids, in the water, to see how far they would go. This day sticks out a lot because of what I finally got Derek to do. All this time I have been telling him he could do a 1 1/2 off of the diving board and he finally tried it and succeeded. To be honest, he could have done a 2. He was that good. But we had a wonderful time at the pool and we had a huge cake for them and tons of friends to celebrate.

Saturday-Evening Party – What I forgot to mention was that before we went to the pool, we noticed a bunch of bees in the yard. When we got home, that turned in to thousands of bees. An entire colony had followed a new queen to a branch on our tree. We spent the night with lots of friends as we called a beekeeper to remove them. The night was caught on film by Robert Callahan. What Brandee will remember the most is that night Derek dressed up in a werewolf costume and bit Brandee saying she was Team Jacob now. Brandee is Team Edward. But the entire day was wonderful. You couldn’t ask for a better day. One of the best we have ever had as a family actually.

Sunday-Morning – We went to church as normal, but this tie, our family was signed up for basically every item. We greeted, ushered and read that day. The reason I bring this up, is this is the first time that Derek ushered for communion. Many people commented that day on how wonderful of a job he did and how he was always looking to me to make sure he was doing it right. It was a very proud day at church for us. I was very proud of Derek.

I won’t share the happenings from the rest of the day as they haunt me daily. What started out as a wonderful week, ended so tragically. These moments are all that I have left, but I will look back and smile at the good times we shared. Derek was a wonderful child. I have missed him dearly. I just wanted to share his final week with everyone. Thank you.