This Is The Way foundation

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — There’s a new foundation that’s been established by a Brandon, South Dakota family that is meant to inspire hope and action by awarding college scholarships to anyone looking to get into the medical field.

The foundation is to honor a teenager whose life was taken too soon.

13-year-old Spencer Thorsland touched so many lives in a short amount of time.

KELOLAND News was invited to follow his courageous journey as he battled cancer for three years.

One of those people he touched was Hollywood actress Emily Swallow, who plays the Armorer in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian.

Spencer was a big Star Wars fan.

We were there at his home when Swallow stopped by to pay Spencer a surprise visit.

“Wanted to get more involved because I believe so much in everything they do and they’ve built such a beautiful community, so they asked me to be an ambassador and part of being an ambassador means I get to hang out with Spencer,” Swallow said.

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When they talked, they talked about Swallow’s role as the Armorer.

Emily: She does not have children of her own, but I guess she is sort of a motherly figure in some ways.

Spencer: You’re a mom to me, I love you like a mom.

Emily: Aw, I love you too.

Spencer: I love you more.

Emily: I’ll never ever compare to your real mom, but I’ll be your Star Wars mom.

One month after that visit, Spencer died on January 8th of last year.

“The first year since Spencer’s been gone, we just thought a lot about how can we keep his legacy going, he was important to so many people and he had such a value system and he touched a lot of lives, so I didn’t want his voice to be silenced by going to heaven,” Spencer’s mother Lori Huml said.

So on the one year anniversary of his death, Spencer’s family launched ‘This Is The Way’ foundation to raise money and awareness about the one word Spencer used all the time; eventually.

“Our first project is called the ‘Eventually Scholarship’; eventually we will find a cure, eventually people will be healed from cancer and our hope is to raise money to give scholarships to Brandon Valley High School seniors who are going into anything medical; doctors, nursing, therapy, lab technician; something in the medical field, because I think somewhere out there there are puzzle pieces that are going to put this cancer thing to rest and we are going to find a cure at some point, so we just want to keep encouraging those to keep filling those shoes of those who will be leaving the field, we need more coming in,” Huml said.

Spencer had dreams of helping others.

“He had a drive or desire to pursue a medical degree that’s what he sort of started to think about while going through his journey and so his thoughts were to either to be a trauma surgeon or to be a plastic surgeon, so the basis of the foundation jumped from that,” Huml said.

The Mayo Clinic, where Spencer received a lot of his cancer treatments, even made him an honorary doctor and gave him his own lab coat and name tag.

But it’s the foundation that will fulfill other dreams through fundraising.

“Our first big fundraiser that we did was with along side Domino’s Pizza it was called ‘Slice the Price’ you could buy a Dominos gift card for $20 and $10 went right back to the foundation,” Huml said.

So far they’ve raised $5 thousand dollars.

While the foundation is a way to honor Spencer’s life and committment to helping others, it’s also helping Huml too.

“It’s been healing for me to be involved with something and put that energy forward, I’ve been explaining that to friends lately, my whole life was medical, doctor visits, in the hospital, administering medicine, getting supplies for Spencer and I kind of feel this void of all that energy I put into helping him I want to do more with that and continue helping others,” Huml said.

To learn more about the This Is The Way foundation and to donate to its gofundme, click here.