Boomer's Legacy – Helping Soldiers Help Others

By Jeannine Friesen

Looking back Maureen Eykelenboom recalls that it was on the flight from British Columbia to Ontario that she knew she had to do something to honour her son Cpl Andrew “Boomer” Eykelenboom. “As I sat on the plane and watched my son’s ramp ceremony from KAF on the news the overwhelming raw and unreal emotions that grew made me say, we have to do something,” explains Maureen. “It was like Andrew was saying, ‘okay Mom, I have done my part, now it is your turn.’”

Andrew was known to have a caring and nurturing nature. It was those traits that made it a natural fit when he decided to join the military as a medic. While he was deployed to Afghanistan Andrew would share with Maureen through his letters and phone calls how hard life was for the people in Afghanistan and how they were living with so little. On August 11, 2006, he made the ultimate sacrifice when he lost his life to a suicide bomber in Spin Boldak, Afghanistan. He was 23 years old.

It has been three years since the Eykelenboom family stood on the tarmac, in the rain, in Trenton and watched Andrew’s flag draped coffin come off the plane. In the days following Andrew’s repatriation ceremony the family didn’t know what or how they would keep Andrew’s memory alive, but Maureen knew as she met Andrew’s buddies that she wanted to raise awareness to the Canadian people about what Canadian troops were doing in Afghanistan. “I knew that whatever we did, we had to help raise awareness of what they were doing,” recalls Maureen. She wanted to get the message out that soldiers were putting their lives on the line to help Afghanis and the loyalty that the troops have for their comrades. She recognized that she had an opportunity to make a difference and to help our soldiers help others.

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