Just a few days before their son, Jackson, would have turned 10, Carrie and Mike Schmitt smiled as a bench in his honor was dedicated at Windsor Elementary School.
It was one of several such benches installed at local schools in honor of Jackson, who was a student at Windsor C-1’s Freer Elementary School and died in July 2019 of osteosarcoma, a fast-growing, highly aggressive form of bone cancer. The bench was funded with a $500 grant from Arsenal Credit Union in Arnold, through its Community Impact Fund.
The original Buddy Bench was installed in January 2020 at Freer Elementary, where Jackson was set to enter the second grade when he fell ill.
Similar benches have since been placed at Windsor Intermediate Center, Northwest R-1’s Brennan Woods Elementary in High Ridge, Fort Zumwalt’s Pheasant Point Elementary in O’Fallon and Lift for Life Academy in St. Louis. Two more are scheduled to go in at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in St. Louis in the upcoming weeks.
“Jackson always tried to make everyone feel welcome, and he hated when kids were left out,” Carrie said. “The benches are there so kids can sit and talk, to reach out and include one another on the playground.”
The benches are just one of the ways the Schmitt family celebrates their son’s life.
“No parent wants to lose a child,” Carrie said. “But I have seen so much generosity, so many wonderful gifts that have come about from his life and his death. It would have been so easy to just live full of grief and bitterness, but we made the conscious decision to help further the things Jackson did and to try to spread the love he was so full of. It’s a choice.”
The family established the nonprofit Love Like Jackson foundation, with the goal of helping further cancer research as well as offering programs and services to families grieving the loss of a child.
The foundation funds art, music and play therapy sessions for children who have lost a sibling, and it places “grief bags” at local hospitals, health practices and libraries. It also supports a backpack donation program and offers grief resources for parents.
Donations are welcome, and Carrie said she hopes people will volunteer to help in any way they can.
“When it is your kid’s birthday or Christmas comes, buy an extra toy to donate,” she said. “Or get together and sponsor a bench with your organization or group of friends.”
She said the foundation also accepts requests for more benches, which local artist Michael Feltz of Rustic Reveal creates from reclaimed barnwood.
For more information, contact the foundation online at lovelikejackson.org or on its Facebook page; email
lovelikejackson1219@gmail.com; or call 563-299-5519.