While Amanda and some of her friends were enjoying the Celebrate Freedom festival at the park, other friends of hers (including Andrew pictured above) were out enjoying an evening of longboarding. Described as “surfing on concrete,” longboarding has become very popular with the young adventuresome population in the last few years. The longboard is similar to a skateboard, but longer. Even though longboarding involves great risk to the head and even though manufacturer’s urge longboard enthusiasts to wear helmets, most longboarders don’t. Evidently, many longboarders believe that helmets will do little to protect them because the majority of the risk from a longboarding fall would be to the face, chin, and body none of which are protected by a helmet.Just before the fireworks started, Amanda’s friends were called to the ER to rally around their friend, Andrew, who sustained a head injury while longboarding that evening. Our hearts broke for Amanda and her friends. We knew what the next few days would hold for them because twenty-five years ago this past August we were called to the emergency room to be with the family of a friend of ours who was injured in a car accident and later died.Andrew had just graduated from high school and he had his entire life ahead of him. He loved playing the guitar, longboarding, attending youth group, participating in musical groups at school, and more. I never met Andrew, but it’s my understanding that he was a great kid who enjoyed living life to the fullest. He died a few days after the longboarding accident. Again I was reminded how short life really is.Andrew wasn’t wearing a helmet that day and we don’t know if things would have turned out differently if he had been wearing one. His family printed these stickers and passed them out at the funeral encouraging everyone to wear a helmet while longboarding, skateboarding, bike riding, etc. We have them attached to all of our helmets now – our 4-wheel/go-cart helmets, bike helmets, skateboard helmets, ski helmets, etc. We’ve spent a FORTUNE in new helmets this year because we believe it’s important to have a properly fitting helmet for each of our various activities. We will always remember Andrew and the importance of wearing a helmet!