A few weeks before he died, former football player Walker Moench sat with his father on the sidelines of the Dakota Ridge High School football field in chairs.

“He looked at me and said, ‘We need bleachers.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we do need bleachers,'” Moench’s father, Eric Moench, recalled.

After Moench died in a dirt bike crash on Sept. 21, the father and his good friend, Jeff Arnold, sparked an idea.

“We’re sitting there in devastation and we’re like, ‘We do need bleachers. Let’s get some bleachers for Walk’.”

Arnold started a GoFundMe on Sept. 25. He asked the local Littleton community to donate for bleachers in the football player’s honor.

They raised more than $30,000 in six days.

“It’s turned into something that’s much larger and way more significant than we had in mind,” Moench said. “We wanted to do something for this special soul that we lost too soon. Something to spread the good will of Walker’s heart. That’s the biggest message that we’re trying to keep alive.”

A heart of gold

Standing at 6-feet 2-inches, the defensive player for the Dakota Ridge football team was known for his athletic prowess, playing all four years.

“A lot of people gravitated to him. He was just a guy they could trust or turn to,” Jeremiah Behrendsen, the head coach of the football team and family friend, said. “On top of that, he just happened to be a pretty freaking good football player and basketball player.”

But Moench’s towering stature played through his personality, too, acting as a friend to anyone and everyone.

His father described him as a give-the-shirt-off-his-back person. Kind and caring, even from a young age.

“I can’t tell you how many times he would say he’s going to go talk to someone and I’d ask why,” he said. “He’d say, ‘they’re just going through a rough patch and want to talk.’ It didn’t matter who it was. It didn’t matter what it was. He was just more than willing to help anyone out.”

The father recalled times where Moench would help people move on the drop of a hat, or shovel snow at 3 a.m. just because he wanted to help out.

Moench, a middle child of three boys, got his kind soul from having to help out with his older brother, Trey Moench, who has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair.

“Growing up with a special needs brother helped introduce him the generosity and compassion for other people,” Eric Moench said, noting that the student took off his junior year of basketball to help out at a special needs recreational center.

A community together

Just a few weeks before Moench was struck and killed by a car while riding his dirt bike, the wife of the Dakota Ridge Eagles’ Defensive Coordinator Tierre Duran died.

After Lindsey Hunter Duran died due to health issues, the community raised more than $28,000 on GoFundMe for the grieving coach.

Just a few weeks after Moench’s death, Larry Franca, the long-time athletic trainer at Dakota Ridge High School, also died.

Behrendsen called the community’s response to the triplet of tragedies astonishing.

“When I think about this money raised for Walker, it really just falls into this big conglomeration of how supportive our community, our families, our school staff and our players are. How committed they are to just taking care of each other. It’s been unreal,” Behrendsen said.

On Sept. 27, the first game since Moench’s death, the Eagles wore blue and pink in honor of the former player. And following a memorial service to kick off the game, the team crushed their opponent 31-13.

Moench’s younger brother, Trent Moench, caught his first two varsity touchdowns during the game, creating for a “fairytale” experience, according to Eric Moench.

Former players and friends poured in to the stadium, some from out of state, to celebrate the life of Moench — showing how strong the Dakota Ridge community truly is.

“I have met so many people whi I didn’t know met Walker,” Eric Moench said. “I’ve probably given out over 2,000 hugs in the past few weeks. It’s really been heartwarming throughout this awful nightmare I’ve been living. The generosity, the compassion and the people are making it a little bit better.”