The community is welcomed to gather at Sutton Park today for the 3rd Annual Lydia’s Day celebration from 4 to 7:30 p.m.
The event not only celebrates Lydia’s life, but also honors her memory as a beloved member of the community while supporting local teens in the area. Attendees will be able to participate in a number of water activities like kayaking, hydrobikes, and paddle boarding, and there will be live music and food for people to enjoy.
Mike Fowler, Lydia’s step-father, said his number one goal is to honor Lydia and have a day where people can come together to smile, have fun, and talk about her and the incredible person that she was. Fowler lost his daughter to suicide in 2019 when she was 13-years-old, and hopes the gathering opens peoples’ eyes to the fact that no one is impervious to bad things happening to them.
“I wake up every day missing my daughter so much and it’s something that — if I can prevent one family from having to go through a tragedy like this — then Lydia’s Day is absolutely worth it 100%...” Fowler said. “I never thought I would be in this position ever in my entire life, so it makes me look back and wish I would have done something, anything just a little bit different…” Fowler reached out to staff at LIFT Teen Center three years ago, hoping to get an organization to support his idea of creating a “Lydia’s Day” to remember her while also helping the community. Unlike other organizations, LIFT staff were on board and wanted to assist from the beginning, and from there, the event has been held around themes and activities that Lydia loved.
“Talking about suicide and about someone’s child who has passed away is very awkward and a lot of people tend to shy away from it,” he said. “Lydia’s Day is my day to kind of make it a little bit easier for people to do that, as well as make it easier for me, but there’s just so many reasons for Lydia’s Day, like to honor her. Lydia loved her peers so much and the connection between LIFT and me is really a connection between LIFT and Lydia because if Lydia was here physically, I truly believe she would be doing something like we’re doing on a yearly basis.”
Resources for local mental health support will also be available for anyone that needs it. Audrey Sharp, LIFT associate director, said the annual celebration of Lydia helps to shed some light on the seriousness of mental health, especially in youth.
“And it (the event) provides resources and support to community members who maybe are experiencing it (mental health struggles) or want to learn more about it so they can support their friends and neighbors,” Sharp said. “Mike wanted any proceeds beyond what covered the event to be invested back into LIFT because he sees the impact LIFT has on local teens and what it could mean for a teen struggling with mental health issues. Now it’s our third year, and it’s honestly one of our favorite, most beloved events that we host.”
Fowler said before Lydia passed, they wanted to originally start a business together that offered water recreational activities as she loved nature and being in or near the water. This love of the outdoors truly grew when Lydia transferred from Traverse City Public Schools to Greenspire School and flourished under the new curriculum. Lydia was supposed to inherit the business, TC Kayak and Hydrobike Rentals, when she became an adult, and although she couldn’t do that, Fowler moved forward with the endeavor and still operates it today.
“That’s really what spawned Lydia’s Day because I had all of this equipment and I knew Lydia would want to do something benefi cial to the community with it… animals and nature were really her passion, other than that, music and dancing and her friends and family, all those things, that’s what she lived for,” he said. “Lydia very much loved anything around the water — a beach day, kayaking, tubing, anything that had to do with the water.”
All donations made at the event go towards LIFT and its mission to serve and work with youth. In the last two years, Fowler said they’ve raised nearly $14,000 from Lydia’s Day that has gone directly back to LIFT.
“I’m really proud of that and Lydia is super proud, too,” he said. “She would be smiling ear to ear, that girl has the biggest heart of anybody I ever met, adult or child. She’s always with me spiritually.”
