Luke Jansen’s Legacy: Mentoring and Music Making

 

Our son Luke Murray Jansen had many mentoring opportunities in his life, and they helped him thrive and become the beautiful person we love! Unique, creative, questioning, open to others, willing to risk making the world a better place, and yet being human with strengths and weaknesses like each of us.

 

Luke’s mentoring opportunities started early. In junior high, he had basketball officiating mentors, and this continued through every level of his officiating. These older youth, young and older adults modelled various ways of communicating, handling conflict, engaging people you’ve never met before, and of course specific about the game of basketball.

 

In high school, he had adult mentors in Model United Nations, Facey Leadership Initiative and Creative Music. Here he was given opportunities to create new ideas, projects and music from scratch with mentors who brought out the best in him, encouraged healthy risk and were flexible in ways that encouraged real creativity, real opportunities to flourish.

 

Strathcona County, the community he grew up in, also added to the opportunities. There was the young performers section of Festival Place’s Patio Series, and the career mentoring through the municipality where he mentored an Edmonton lawyer for one day who had an impactful discussion with him on balancing career and family life.

 

Luke grew as a musician. Luke and his North of Here bandmates Ian, Will and Caleb had more gifts of mentorship through musicians, producers and public radio in the Alberta arts community. Alberta Music and School of Song at the Canmore and Edmonton Folk Music Festivals to name a couple provided Luke with so much joy and growth in his music career.

 

Luke grew as a community leader.   His University of Alberta political science degree included many opportunities to talk with and interview other people who cared about community and cared about music. David Shepherd and Myrhe’s Music owners Alfie and Byron all took time with Luke to let him interview them and understand their community leadership and music journeys so he could chart his own path.

 

Any of Luke’s successes were truly many people’s successes.  

On October 6, 2017, Luke could describe himself as:

• a new graduate of the University of Alberta,

• a new neighbour with three roommates in the Parkallen neighbourhood in Edmonton,

• an Election Assistant training election workers for the October municipal election in Strathcona County,

• an upcoming MLA constituency assistant ready to start in November in Edmonton when his election contract ended,

• a member of the band North of Here with a busy practice and recording schedule and two grant applications in for their new album, and

• happy and well loved son and brother looking forward to two Thanksgiving dinners with his family on the upcoming weekend.

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The results of all these amazing mentorship opportunities, both formal and informal, were beginning to flourish in the person Luke had become.

 

Sadly though, all Luke’s creativity, beautiful voice and dynamic personality were silenced in an instant when Luke died at the end of a morning run before work in a tragic pedestrian collision. Luke died at 22 ½ years old on Friday October 6, 2017 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  

 

We hope Luke's life will continue to bring meaning and purpose to others.

Luke’s love of music and community can shine through in this

Mentoring and Music Making Memorial.