The family of a Truman High School student killed last year are trying their best to turn the tragedy into a triumphant fight to help youth understand the importance of protecting the environment.
Cheryl Cooper, environmentalist and mother of Christopher Cooper, said she and friends of Christopher gathered Sunday morning along Noland Road to clean nearly a mile stretch of road adopted in his honor to preserve Christopher’s memory and enlighten some of his friends’ views on being environmentally friendly.
Christopher Cooper was a 17-year-old junior at Truman when he was struck on his bicycle by a car fleeing police last November near Truman Road and Osage Street.
“Out of everything that has happened, it is very hard to find any positives,” Cheryl Cooper said. “I’m very interested in motivating the young people to get involved in their community in just a small way. I’d be happy if maybe this can keep just one of them from throwing a plastic bottle out of a window while they’re driving.”
Cheryl Cooper’s friend, Ellen Steimann, said the past year has been difficult for Cheryl Cooper and Cooper’s family and friends, adding the cleanup effort to memorialize Christopher was very special to those who knew him.
“It’s hard,” Steimann said. “Being a mother of two teenagers myself, (I know) she’s living a mother’s worst dream. It’s hard on her and on us because there is nothing we can say or do but let her know we are here for her and (who) her true friends are. She’s my best friend and my hero.”
Christopher had left the QuikTrip at 1225 South Noland Road and Fair when he was killed at an intersection just north of Truman High School, where he was a student. The family adopted the road along Noland Road from Fair to Osage. Family and friends will gather every six to eight weeks to clean litter and trash from the stretch, Cheryl Cooper said.
“You know this part of Noland Road used to be known as the ‘Miracle Mile,’ ” Cheryl Cooper said. “Well, it’s not the ‘Miracle Mile’ anymore. It’s Christopher’s. This is where my son spent his last moments on this earth. And he was happy, doing what he loved.”
Cheryl Cooper described her son as loving the outdoors – bicycling and skateboarding were his passions – and was introduced to recycling and protecting the environment during the first three years of his life.
“I feel very strongly that he would like this,” Cheryl Cooper said of the cleanup. “This is something he would do.”
