Tag Archives: Ethan

If You Build It… esports Gaming Life at Purdue University

It has been an honor to keep step with the gaming life and events at Purdue University, West Lafayette. I have mentioned it often how heavily involved Ethan (Jolteon79) was in the gaming community during his four years of Material Science Engineering undergraduate studies. In those years while leading in Clubs, Ethan was encouraged by Jason Maynard, Senior Assistant Director of Sport Programs at the Purdue Recreation and Wellness center, to build esports community. I am humbled by the work Jason has pressed forward with and grateful to get to know him.

At the start of this summer, I received word from Jason that the dream of a focused esports program at Purdue would be a reality much sooner than anticipated. In June, Dell Technologies and Purdue announced an agreement to establish the APGL, one of the largest dedicated collegiate gaming facilities in the country. Our family was glad in 2022 when the Boiler Game Mine opened at the Memorial Union on campus. The BGM allowed the Splatoon @ Purdue Club, along with many other Purdue Gaming Clubs, to continue in the efforts of building esports life with a dedicated space. Now, with the news from Dell, Jason excitedly let me know the esports hub of gaming Ethan had collaborated with him towards was now a reality!

I traveled to Purdue in West Lafayette Thursday, August 15th, for the grand opening ceremony of the Alienware Purdue Gaming Lounge (APGL). The Lounge is truly an inspiring 2000 square foot space on the lower level of the Co-Rec situated in the heart of campus. Congratulations to Jason Maynard who communicated his vision for what could be possible and for seeing it through. Thank you to Mike Warren for hearing and believing in what Jason communicated as a need and working to bring it forward to today.

“The esports ecosystem at Purdue is thriving, with thousands of students actively participating,” said Mike Warren, senior director of Recreation & Wellness at Purdue. “Whether students are looking to get casually involved or compete at higher levels, we are excited to support gaming here at Purdue RecWell, showcasing the latest technology.”

I was blessed to be a part of the energy of the grand opening day. Sharing the joy of this building work with Jason, celebrating achievements with the new Splatoon @ Purdue Club leadership, and seeing the amazing technology that Dell brought to the space with Alienware. It was fun meeting up with Katie Sermersheim, Dean of Students, in the viewing gallery and hearing her excitement for the esports program. Meeting students on staff for APGL gave me an appreciation for the ecosystem that has been steadily building. The Varsity Team room and Purdue Broadcasting studio are incredible! There will be great commentating and tournaments ahead!

There was plenty of time to sit in awe of what the last six years have been about… building a dream one step at a time. I recall Ethan’s efforts in Club life, both Splatoon @ Purdue and Pokemon Draft League with the Battle Association of Purdue. My memories brought back his excitement from April 9th of 2022 when he welcomed teams from Michigan State University to Purdue campus for the first in-person Collegiate LAN event featuring more than two collegiate teams representing their university. The Splatoon @ Purdue RecWell esports Intercollegiate Invitational was held at the Co-Rec that April as a foreshadowing of what has now become esports on campus.

I marvel at the opportunity and potential for students ahead. Purdue now a part of the Collegiate esports scene with Varsity teams is everything our son worked toward with Jason during his time on campus.

Such an amazing Giant Leap again at Purdue University this week!

I always carry
Jolteon79
in my heart!

I know he was right there with us in the APGL on Thursday… laughing, smiling and overjoyed for this dream come true!

JOLT-ON! 2024: RAILs Around the Country!

LEGO Groot

When I think of GROOT from Guardians of the Galaxy, it strikes me how much he shares his strength for his friends. No matter the situation, GROOT is found encouraging this band of galaxy trekking guardians. He shows up not only to fight, but also to listen, care, encourage, support, defend, love and laugh with his friends throughout every moment he shares with them…

GROOT is also one of Ethan’s favorite characters! When I consider the friendships he forged in his 22 years, I can see how he encouraged his friends with strength and a gentle, fun-loving spirit.

In these last two years, there are a number of friends that have really stood out with GROOT-like strength as we are walking through the most unimaginable grief of living without Ethan in our days. It is amazing to me to look at how God has provided each of them as encouragement in unique ways. Some I have known for years, some I have only recently met. Some are brave souls whom purposefully show up without our prompting. Some reached out to introduce themselves during the early and hard days when our son first leaped into heaven and are now close at heart. I am blessed to know each and every one and consider them guardians of strength appointed by the Lord Almighty! While I do not always know or understand what HE is up to in my life, I can say for certain the Lord continues to send each of them during times when we need them most…

With that, we sent several LEGO GROOT sets out to our guardian friends around the country during this month of June. GROOT has traveled near and far to places in Illinois, Connecticut, Texas, Wisconsin, and Washington!
It has been a blessing to get to know these friends in far places…

I am forever grateful!

Above is GROOT in Connecticut with my sister in the Lord,
Kim Wan!

Left… GROOT is in Washington State hanging out with David Farache as he moved across the country!

It has been a joy to share these Random Acts In LEGO with them.

JOLT-ON! 2024: The Great Wave

Today, in this second year on Ethan’s Eternity day, we are keeping focus with a LEGO art piece: The Great Wave by Hokusai.

As we have been remembering Ethan in these last ten days through his engineering and builder spirit, we turned our basement into a studio. The purpose: to work through this large memorial build as a family. We have posted below the time-lapse progression of our journey throughout the day. It was finished by days end…

Chapter 1: Unboxing
The Great Wave

Chapter 2: Getting Started!
Segments 1-3

There is a LEGO audio recording offered in the set for historical info on the artist Hokusai found at this link if you are interested!

Chapter 3: Water
Segments 4-6

Chapter 4: Base Layer Complete
Segments 7-8

Chapter 5: Making of a Wave
Segments 9-10

Chapter 6: Frame Work
Segments 11-14

Chapter 7: Finale!
Segment 15

Our finished piece! This has been a peaceful way to remember our son. Thanks for sharing the time with us. Please let us know the impact you have felt in the comments below. We will be pulling all 7 chapters together into a full time-lapse video along with music from Joe Hisaishi’s “Princess Mononoke”. in the next few days.. as you can imagine, Hisaishi’s music was playing in the background as we built all day today!

We hope and pray Ethan’s legacy will inspire you to share LEGO’s and God’s love with others in the days ahead this year!

NOTE: Comments are moderated and posted within 24 hours of submission. If you have a file or image to share, please email it to jolton@wfour.net and we will add it to your comment!

JOLT-ON! 2024: RAILs Inspirations

Random Acts In LEGO sharing with The Atkinson Family

LEGO Inspiration: UP! House,
Groot!
and…
LEGO Avengers video games!

The Atkinson family joined in on the JOLT-ON! 2024 Memorial Game Days starting on Ethan’s birthday, May 30th, this year. They very thoughtfully were inspired to share LEGO together as a family and with others over these ten days. Here is their update from Nichole…

“Thinking about you and your family today. On Ethan’s birthday the kids thought it would be nice to pick out a new Lego set to work on together. We found the house from the movie Up!, which they felt was just perfect. Then they found Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy and then they were torn. So, they wondered what I thought we should do and were certain I wouldn’t let them have both, but thinking about how they’re only little for a little while and they were actually agreeing on these things, and why we were even having the discussion, I couldn’t say no.

We came home and had dinner and the younger 2 rediscovered (sort of accidentally) a Lego Avengers game for Switch and they played that for hours. They know Ethan loved Splatoon and told me it was okay because they found a Lego video game! So it was like they were doing both! So we worked on the Lego’s together as a family and finished the Up! House over the next 2 nights.

Since Ethan’s birthday they’ve finished both Lego sets together and reminded each other why they are doing them and told and shown our various visitors through the last 10 days why there are Lego’s everywhere and who they are for. The Up! House is now proudly displayed in the China cabinet so it won’t get wrecked, as they worked so hard on it for me to remember Ethan’s birthday and Heaven Day this year.

I miss that contagious smile, the sweetheart of a kid and young man he was… talking video games and young love with him. I miss a complete Wang family unbroken by tragedy, but I love you all so completely.”

Nichole Atkinson

Thank you all for joining us in the LEGO challenge! Your random acts in LEGO sharing over these ten days is so very thoughtful. We are blessed that you all chose to remember Ethan and share his legacy with others. It is just like Ethan to find LEGO in everything… life, play and video games!We will be sending you our 2024 memorial stickers and magnets in gratitude for joining us!

Are you catching on? Where in the country will we see Random Acts In Lego next?…

JOLT-ON! 2024: RAILs LEGO Games with Friends

Inspiration: Game Night, LEGO style!
When: Friday, June 7th 2024
Where: Feryance House, St. Charles, IL

There is more to our intention of Random Acts In Lego sharing than just handing out LEGO’s everywhere this week! On Friday, June 7th, we gathered together with friends to reminisce and play games. Of course it’s games! That is Ethan’s capacity… he brought people together through games and LEGO has always been a great way to share the fun of games with friends.

On this night, gathering with Ladies in our community, we enjoyed snacks and fellowship around the theme of LEGO games:

  • LEGO “I SPY”
  • Left Center Right (Dice Game) with LEGO bricks
  • LEGO Creator Board Game (a building classic released in 1999!)
  • LEGO Bingo (we ran out of time for this one but it was on the list!)

Winners received a small LEGO set to keep or share forward. There are so many more game ideas from LEGO… do you have any favorites to share?

Watch out for our next RAILs Inspiration…

JOLT-ON! 2024: Droid Builds

Vacuum Cleaner Droid

Created: 2006

Builder: Ethan

Building Droids is something we loved to do on a hot summer day. After outdoor activities proved too hot, Ethan and I would head to the cool of our basement, spread out a large bin of LEGO’s and start free-building. It was one of his favorite activities! He created this Vacuum Cleaner Droid in the summer of 2006. Part of the fun was the story we would create with our builds. Star Wars and Droids were always a popular story line.

In remembering Ethan this week, I pulled out our LEGO Sandcrawler and all the Droids for some stop-motion capers… check it out!

We would love to see your free-build creations! Comment below and send your pics to jolton@wfour.net and we would be glad to post them for you in the spirit of remembering Ethan.

JOLT-ON! 2024 LEGO Replay: Campus House Kids

An update came in from Campus House today! It is great to share how they are putting to use the LEGO’s and DUPLO’s within the kids ministry. Here is the update from Tiernan McDivit, Sunday School Coordinator:

“I used some of the DUPLO’s to teach in the nursery the other day and wanted to share with you 🙂 

I’ve been teaching lessons about the characteristics of Jesus this summer, and this past Sunday’s lesson was Jesus loves God’s House (the story about young Jesus in the temple). I had a temple out of LEGO’s in front of us. Then I gave each of the kids an alphabet DUPLO with their initial on it, and talked about how when we have Jesus in our hearts, we are also being built into God’s house (1 Peter 2:5). They each got to add their block to our temple. 

The kids really enjoyed using the DUPLO’s and played with them for awhile after the lesson! And I enjoyed using them to teach. 
Thank you again for this gift! It has been a blessing!” 

Tiernan 
Campus House Kids!

If you are a Purdue University student attending in West Lafayette next Fall, check out Campus House and serving opportunities! Hope to see you there and to share the love of Christ with the kids of Campus House!

JOLT-ON! 2024: Campus House Kids

In this last year, we have been back to Campus House Church at Purdue several times to serve or attend in one way or another. Time within the walls of this amazing church is one way we stay connected to the people and places where Ethan was on mission. He was so eager to continue life with Pastors, staff and this community at the time of his passing. We are grateful to each and everyone whom impacted Ethan’s life in the four years he lived at Purdue.

On our trips in 2023, we noticed a Kids ministry building and growing each time we visited Campus House. During Sunday worship times, volunteers and staff provide classroom space for children to come and hear Bible stories and engage in age appropriate activities while their parents attend church service. It is evident to us that Campus House is a multi-generational church right in the heart of this Big Ten University, seeking to serve students and families alike.

In our son’s early childhood years, we admire how our local church’s kids ministry creatively used LEGO’s in the classroom and summer camp programs. Ethan and Noah have experienced learning the love of Jesus Christ all throughout their growing up years simply by creative activities with LEGO. We see LEGO’s helping kids:

  • develop motor skills
  • learn cooperative play
  • giving kids a sense of accomplishment
  • learn persistence
  • encouraging kids to explore
  • teaching kids to be creative

As the month of May 2024 set in, we purposed to remember Ethan and honor his Legacy in a way that would remind us of his engineering and building spirit. Our son was an avid Lego fan. So much so that he became a Materials Science Engineer at Purdue and his focus was polymer science… the study of plastics! He enjoyed creating and teaching with LEGO’s, as well as stories and games even into his adult life. He was active in community at Campus House for his years of undergraduate study and he had intended to continue to be active after college. Therefore, in the week leading up to Ethan’s would be 24th birthday, we delivered several key LEGO Duplo and LEGO Classic sets to the Campus House Kids leader, Tiernan McDivitt and Pastor Erin Good. We pray that continuing to honor Ethan’s legacy will impact the kingdom of God as more children hear the message of Jesus Christ.

We look forward to seeing how the staff and volunteers at Campus House put to use these LEGO sets in the Kids ministry to share the love of Jesus Christ right in the heart of Purdue University’s campus! Do you have a passion to share the love of God? We encourage you to grab a LEGO set and create space to share LEGO activities and tell the Big God Story with children in your life! Come back and tell us how you share in the comments below.

24 Today…

On this day, your would be 24th birthday, I can only look back and see how unbelievable it is that you are walking with Jesus for two years now. Certainly is an uprooting like no other…

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Remembering the last birthday we had with you. Fixing my eyes on Jesus and the eternity that awaits. Missing you every moment son…