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Upload your favorite memories of Matt to keep his memory alive!
Site admins will create and update a gallery with your submissions.
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Any planned group celebrations will be announced on this page.
Until then, we ask that you continue to celebrate Matt’s life daily.
Matt had always been a good person, and he had always been someone I was proud of calling a brother. I have to say, though, I couldn't have been more proud when the drive-by service came by a few Saturdays ago. I knew he had made a difference in peoples' lives, but you never truly get a grasp of the fullness of it all until after: Even the slightest positive interaction can make a cascading impact, like ripples across the surface of a pond. Moments like that, of community and love around a person, let you step back for just a second and see not only your place in this person's life, but how there is community in the lives nudged and bettered by a friend.
Take a breath and look over the water, and you can see how the ripples form a tapestry across the surface. Your connection to him might have been just one ripple- one thread in that tapestry- but as a whole, they are the story of a new foundation of courage, caring, and love. That's part of you now, you know; you are the inheritor of that love as much as I am. No doubt Matthew's life influenced yours in some way or another. Whether that was a small nudge or a vast, sweeping wave, it is now part of your story.
Maybe that's how we keep the memory of him alive, in some small way: by remembering the ways that his love is now part of the foundation of our own hearts; the soil that can help our own gardens grow.
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me is more important than facts. It’s more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you... We are in charge of our attitude.”
Whenever you might be missing Matt a little bit extra, look up and seek out his star!
A special gift by Matt’s family, STAR STARVL73RR4B3K is now formally known as MTT_THE_TRP!
The official deed to the star can be found below.
We don’t expect everyone to have a NASA telescope or make a trip to an observatory
so here are a few ways you can do this from home:
1) The most immersive way is to download Google Earth’s Desktop Application here: https://www.google.com/earth/versions/
Alternatively, you can use your browser via: https://www.google.com/sky/
2) Look up the following coordinates:
Right Ascension 8h 5m 48.1s (121.4500 Longitude) and Declination +4˚ 16’ 7.9” (4.2689 Latitude)
(Near Orion)
3) Think about the impact Matt has had on your life, what advice he may share with you right now,
and use that for fuel to be a better version of yourself!
Looking to see the star via an observatory in the DC/Metro area?
Schedule a visit to the George Mason University Observatory:
https://science.gmu.edu/academics/departments-units/physics-and-astronomy-department/observatory/visit
All proceeds linked to this site are for the full honor of Matthew James Lopez, better known as Matt “The Trap” Lopez, and his courageous battle with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Matt had two foundations close to his heart: the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Be the Match Foundation. Matt’s family will ultimately make the decision of where they plan to donate any unused funds on his behalf.
How to support:
1) Donate to the GoFundme page:
2) Make a donation in memory of Matt to:
Please indicate Matthew J. Lopez Memorial Scholarship Endowment on memo line or in comments field when making a contribution.
