Family works to get BMX bike park to honor son
Last Updated on 13 August 2009 Written by ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Kory Laos' presence is missed, but his family and friends are doing a lot to preserve his memory.
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Kory died on May 4, 2007, two days before his 15th birthday, after he was struck by an SUV while riding his bicycle on East Speedway near the University of Arizona.
He loved riding his BMX bike, and all he wanted to do that Friday night was go riding with seven of his friends, said his father, Scott Laos.
It would have been easy to let his son's tragic death tear his family apart emotionally, Laos said, but they wanted to be strong for Kory.
So the Laos family, which includes Kory's mother Lynn and older brother Kyle, and some of their close family and friends have worked tirelessly since Kory's death to get a BMX bike park built in Tucson.
"It's hard and it will always be hard," Laos said of losing his son. "But rather than let it destroy everything, we decided to honor our child."
Kory's family has had some recent success in its two-year journey to get the bike park off the ground.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors agreed last month to name a proposed BMX bicycle park within Flowing Wells District Park after Kory.
The park will be called the Kory Laos Memorial Bike Park.
Kory's family members want the park to be a place where children can go to stay out of trouble, but, more important, they want it to be a place where BMX riders can feel safe.
"We started it all about our little boy, but it's really about the safety of all the other children and not having other families go through what we went through," Scott Laos said.
Pima County donated the eight or so acres on which the proposed park will be built, and now the family is waiting for the outcome of a future Pima County bond election.
"I can't stress how hard they have worked with us and supported us," Laos said of Pima County officials. "They understand a park needs to be built."
If approved by voters, bond elections typically fund projects like the one the Laoses are pushing, but the family also is doing fundraising of its own.
The cost to build the park would be around $1.5 million, Scott Laos said.
Family members have worked with other relatives and friends to raise more than $8,000 to help build the park.
The idea to build a park that would honor Kory was born after a couple of Kory's friends approached his older brother, Kyle, about the park.
Sixteen-year-old Matt Czarnowski was with Kory the night he was killed, and he wanted to do something to remember his close friend.
He and Kyle collected signatures and circulated a petition to urge city and county officials to build a bike part.
"We're tired of riding on the streets," Czarnowski said.
Czarnowski was about 2 years old when his family settled in a house behind the Laos family home in a northwest-side neighborhood.
He and Kory attended Thornydale Elementary School and Tortolita Middle School together.
Their friendship grew with every bike ride.
"I miss riding with him," he said.
Czarnowski is now a junior at Mountain View High School — just as Kory would have been if he were alive today. He still rides his bike every day and wishes his friend were there alongside him.
"He wasn't scared of anything," Czarnowski said. "He'd just go out and do it and have fun."
Kory stood only about 4-foot-8 at best, but his small size never got in his way, Scott Laos said.
"Kory was fearless," he said. "He wasn't afraid to do anything. He'd take a dive and get right back up."
Kory played soccer and basketball, and he and his brother would shoot hoops together in their front yard.
"He was small but very quick," Kyle Laos said.
The bike park is a fitting tribute to his younger brother, he said, but it will also serve a larger purpose.
"I don't want to see any other kids getting injured."
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