"Once you discover who you are that is when you are truly happy"
- Luke Urbanovsky
Luke Urbanovsky’s life (age 19) was tragically cut short in a car accident on June 16, 2012.
Luke was a 2011 Graduate of Granbury High School ranking in the top 6% of his class. He played Granbury Varsity Football and Baseball. He was selected as Granbury Optimist Club Young Texan, member of the Junior Leadership Granbury Program and National Honor Society. He was actively involved in the St Francis Catholic Church and was an Alter Server and Usher. He also worked as lifeguard for Hood County YMCA and Pecan Plantation Clubhouse. He was known for his school spirit at sporting events in high school and that spirit carried over to his Freshmen college year at Texas A&M. Luke attended all the home Texas A&M football games and other various sporting events. He loved the Aggie Baseball games. Actually, he loved everything about Texas A&M and its traditions.
Luke completed his freshmen year at Texas A&M University where he was majoring in Chemical Engineering and had a GPA of a 3.0/4. Luke was involved in a Freshmen Leadership Organization call MSC FISH (Memorial Student Center - Freshmen in Service and Hosting). Luke was one of the 80 Freshmen students (out of 800+ applicants) selected to be part of MSC FISH. This organization brought Luke much joy in servicing others while making lifelong friends. MSC FISH provides service and hosting to the surrounding communities. Since it conception, over 50,000 hours of community service have been donated by the students. Students involved in this organization are dedicated to making a lifelong commitment to volunteerism and social responsibility, while strengthening their own leadership.
Listed are some of the volunteer activities Luke participated in this past school year at A&M. This is list compiled from his peers in MSC FISH.
1) Weekly service - This included several daily volunteering opportunities which included working at the Waldenbrooke Retirement Home, Backpack program (packing backpacks full of necessities and food for underprivileged kids), taking time to empty all recycling receptacles on campus, Boys and Girls club (spending time with kids after school who's parents do not have time to pick them up directly after work and making sure they have a fun, safe time while waiting on their parents, project called Tiger Friends which was spending time with the special needs kids at a local high school.
2) Kyle Field Clean Up - spending hours during early morning hours after the football games to clean all of the trash out of sections of Kyle Field.
3) Camp Allen - Cleared brush and fixed the grounds. He helped create a new disc golf course for the kids. Luke worked on the boat dock, staining it and making it perfect with our group. He then went and cleared fence lines for the camp making it beautiful with four or five other guys.
4) Kyle Field Day - Luke was a part of the committee and advertised and worked hard to make sure people knew about this project. He put in countless hours getting ready for it and setting up. He went from business to business to collect donations and to thank people that helped. Kyle Field Day is a day that MSC FISH gets to use Kyle Field to let people know about service opportunities and ways that they can get involved in their community and world. There are booths set up around the field enabling people to collect information and do projects such as paint bowls that are auctioned off for the local soup kitchen, bracelets are made for abused women and children, picnic tables are painted for local parks.
5) Big Event - This is a day where thousands of Aggies come together to go out into the community and help people in the Bryan/College Station area with selfless hearts. Luke helped a couple move out of their house and do yard work that they wouldn't have been able to complete on their own.
6) Special Needs Prom Dinner - Set up a dinner and good time for the special needs kids before their prom. Helped out in moving supplies, decorating and painting.
7) Prom Dress Drive - For girls that would normally not be able to afford them. He helped out collecting them, transport them, and running the dress drive at a local high school.
8) Relay For Life
9) Tiny Hands Organization - This is an organization that rescues girls in Nepal from sex slavery. Luke donated his time and money to help spread the word on this. A&M was set with a goal to build a home for these girls that were rescued. The goal was to collect enough money for one house with was around $24000. Luke was a part of this. At the end of this project that was campus wide, enough money was raised to build almost three homes for these rescued girls.
10) Camp For All - Camp for all is a camp that is open to all special needs kids to have fun and be a kid at camp. Luke was a huge part of creating new horse trails for the kids. Luke happily joined the kitchen staff to serve the kids breakfast and lunch. He worked for hours using a hand saw with the other guys cutting down trees and branches to create the trail. The girls would drag the branches out and we worked for hours. It was truly amazing to see the work we had done in just a few hours with so few kids. The lady was trying to hire us on the spot to work at the camp.
Luke participated in all of this charity work while still maintaining good grades during this Freshmen year at Texas A&M. Also during this time, his faith grew very strong. Truly we did not realize the many lives he touched.
"Many kids came up to both Joe and I to tell us how much he affected their lives and how much they will miss him. How he helped out many of them with struggles they were having at certain times in their lives. One college student said that he was struggling with school and making friends and was overwhelmed in a big university setting. Luke became his friend and turned this person’s college experience around. We heard the same story over and over. A very close friend of his said, his love for people amazed me every day. He was so passionate and loving of everybody."
- Connie Urbanovsky (Luke's Mom)
Luke has changed the lives of more people in his short 19 years then most people will do in their entire lives. He was the best friend, brother and son anyone could have ever asked for. Anyone who had the pleasure to meet this brilliant young man, knew how completely selfless and caring he was. Luke was the first person to jump right in when anyone was in need. Although he will be deeply missed here on this earth, we will rejoice and celebrate the life he had while he was here and the people who he touched.
We will miss you and love you forever Luke!
Love,
Your Family
(Parents- Joe & Connie; Brothers- Joshua & Nathan; Adopted Sister- Cassie; Family by blood; Family by friendship; Aggie Family)