TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - His life was cut short after the actions of a bully got the best of him.
Since 14-year-old Luken Boyle's death, his mother, Samantha Boyle, has been working on an effort to ensure her son's death is not in vain.
It was the thoughtlessness of a classmate and a post on social media that lead Luken to a desperate place. But since his death, the word bully has not been emphasized, but instead kindness.
And on Wednesday night, Samantha kicked off the "Luken T Boyle Campaign for Kindness" at Blessed Sacrament.
Last year Luken was preparing for 8th grade graduation at Blessed Sacrament. But today the Kindness corner on the school's grounds serves as a reminder to students of a life lost and that kindness counts.
"We are learning to live day to day without Luke and it's tough. So I'm hoping his legacy will live on through this campaign and that's what really kept us going," Samantha explained.
From loosing her 14-year-old son suddenly less then a year ago, Samantha found strength through forming a charity in her Luken's memory.
She is on a mission and is hoping Luken's story will encourage kindness and make it a habit with the Campaign for Kindness.
"It's about promoting intentional acts of kindness. It's an after school program where kids will meet once a month and they'll be given activities that are intentional acts of kindness that will start first at home, and you know within themselves, and then we hope to spread it through our communities," Samantha said.
Next year Central Catholic will adopt the program. The hope is for it to be adopted by other schools and districts.
In the mean time, Luken's mom continues to preach that kindness starts with you. She's asking kids to not hit share, like or send on social media that would spread hate or hurt, because for Luken, it was that one post that lead him away for ever.
"We don't necessarily have to do these big grand gestures. Sometimes we don't have to do anything at all when it comes to the cyber aspect of things. You can not click share or not click like or not hit send and have that stop with you.
Anyone who is interested in learning more about the kindness campaign or getting an event lined up at a local school, can head to the campaign's Facebook page here.
