Author Spotlight
Campbell Wood
When band director Alex Toepfer showed up at 6:30 for the 7 a.m. marching band practice that October day, 2021 East alum Logan Lowrey was already there. It had reached the point in the season when practices felt long and kids were exhausted, but she was the first one on the field that morning with a contagious smile Alex will never forget.
Logan had just gotten back from days of intensive chemotherapy and nights of no sleep from round-the-clock medical care. She and her mom worked with the doctors to speed up the treatment so she could leave the hospital by 5 a.m. to make it to marching band practice on time.
“I get up early and [have] all this stuff [to do], but she would never complain and she would just be there,” Alex said. “That’s how hard she worked to do the things that ‘normal kids’ take for granted.”
Throughout high school, Logan strived for the idea of “normal.” She’d text her friends right after chemo asking them to hang out. When offered a more comfortable chair in jazz band, she refused, wanting the same chair as everyone else — the same chance as everyone else.
For four years, Logan battled Osteosarcoma cancer, a bone cancer, that had her in and out of the hospital, pushed her to search for every trial that would give her another day to live and left her with 40% of her lungs.
But after this four-year battle, Logan passed away on June 10.
In her absence, members of the East community grieve the loss of a student, leader, daughter, the 2021 homecoming queen, sister, bandmate and friend.
Those who knew her remember her having more energy than themselves after coming home from multiple rounds of chemo, the biggest smile even when she was on oxygen and a let’s-kick-cancer’s-ass mindset since her diagnosis. They remember Logan.
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While Logan was many things, she was also an athlete. Growing up, she participated in soccer, basketball and Taekwondo.
She was used to running in her sports. She was used to sometimes crawling around on her hands and knees in Taekwondo. Her leg pain wasn’t anything new — after all, all her teammates’ legs were also hurting. So when her leg was aching, no one thought twice about it.
But when she fell in eighth-grade gym class, she knew something was wrong.
“I just thought she pulled [a] muscle,” Logan’s mom Gina Lowrey said. “We went [to the doctor] and her pediatrician had seen [her condition] once before, so he knew exactly what it was.”
The doctors found that Logan had nine tumors in her lungs and bone cancer in her right femur. Just over two weeks later, she had egg preservation surgery, a port placement surgery and her first chemo treatment.
Logan spent more than 100 nights in the hospital during her first year of treatment.
When chemo took all of her hair, she didn’t wear a hat or wig — she owned it. No matter how many stares or funny looks she received, she embraced it.
On Halloween, Gina brought Logan’s costume to the hospital, which she barely had enough time to change into before rushing out the door to get to school on time. Logan dressed as Aang from “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” known for his bald head with a blue arrow coming down the front.
“She never wore a wig, she never covered it up,” Gina said. “It was just who she was and I think she just looked like such a badass.”
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While Logan didn’t let cancer slow her down, she also didn’t let it drive conversations.
2020 East alum Colton Weaver sat next to Logan in jazz band and never questioned why she had no hair, which is why he believes they became such good friends.
“I feel like a lot of people didn’t see past her bald head and her surgery scars,” Colton said. “A lot of people would just only ever want to talk about her illness with her. If she was having a hard time or struggling we would talk about it, but I didn’t bring it up constantly.”
Colton saw her as someone who never judged, was friendly to everyone and was interested in everything you had to say. To Colton, she was the kind of friend you’d lend a book to and she’d actually read it.
“She just seemed genuinely interested in everyone,” Colton said. “When you would talk to her, she wouldn’t be on her phone. She’d just be making eye contact with you. She was always smiling, even if she was recovering from surgery.”
Colton still reaches for his phone sometimes to text her only to catch himself as he types in her name, knowing she’ll never read it.
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An old soul. That’s what Logan’s second-grade teacher called her.
Logan was patient and watchful ever since she was 3 years old when she looked over her year-and-a-half-old brother Garrett, always making sure she knew where he was in the room.
“She was always the protector and the caring person,” Gina said.
It was Logan’s second nature to look out for others before herself. In the hospital, Logan had a male nurse who worked the night shift. He’d often describe to her what it was like to be a male nurse who worked with young teenage girls and how he wanted to make her, and all girls he worked with, feel as comfortable as possible. Logan would leave him little notes of encouragement like “you’re doing a great job.”
“Here she was getting chemo treatments to try to save her life, and she’s encouraging and supporting the staff that’s caring for her,” Gina said.
Her unending encouragement never faltered in the band room either. Logan played in all five bands at East where she served as the saxophone section leader and established herself as an example for the rest of her peers, including fellow saxophone player and senior Abby Goodmon.
“She actually wanted to make sure that she went out for a section leader her senior year because she wanted me to be drum major and not stuck as a saxophone section leader,” Abby said.
Logan saw potential in Abby and stepped back to increase her chances of being drum major. Because of Logan, Abby is now starting her second year as drum major.
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Bulls—.
On the day a hospital bed was delivered to her home, Logan pressed the “bulls—” button she gifted her brother for his birthday three times, telling her mom all the ways that having a hospital bed for her in their living room was, well, bulls—.
Logan eventually gave in as the bed propped her up, making breathing easier in those final two months. While her condition was worsening, her humor was still strong.
That was something Logan was known for amongst her friends: always having a strong sense of humor.
When former East student and friend of 13 years Maddox Mogenson visited her in the hospital, she welcomed him with a tour of her hospital room as if she were making a YouTube video.
“It sounds like I’m describing no one that exists on Earth but she literally was the perfect friend,” Maddox said. “I mean she was loyal, she would always listen, she was always ready to [go on an] adventure. That was one thing that she loved to do, she loved to do crazy stuff.”
When 5-year-old Maddox first met Logan in the kindergarten lunchroom, he said to her “I think you’re really pretty.” Her response? Ew. They then sat together at lunch, completely unaware that they had sparked a 13-year friendship that day.
“She was a person where you could not hang out with her for months on months, even years, and the next time you hang out with her, it’s like nothing has ever changed,” Maddox said.
Though Maddox moved away in 2020, he flew in from New York three times in the month before she died. They had always been there for each other throughout their friendship.
When Logan’s dad passed away over a year before her initial diagnosis, 10-year-old Maddox was on her doorstep within an hour of hearing the news. It was easy for Maddox to be there for her because she was there for him the year prior when his step-mom passed.
“I’m just realizing how messed up it is to go through two of our friends’ parent figures dying within a year,” Maddox said. “[People would ask], ‘how did you guys do that’ and I honestly don’t know. But we did it, and I’m happy we did just because I don’t think our friendship would have been as intense and as real as it was if [we] hadn’t.”
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Three months to live.
That’s what they told her in March 2020. It was a saying that no longer phased Logan or her family as they’d been told this many times before. But she’d go on to live for another year.
In those final months, when the counts between her breaths grew shorter and her movement decreased, the friends she’d supported for so long now showed up to return the support.
Colton would come over four or five times a week, and most of the time, they’d watch movies. He introduced her to “Star Wars” just before she died, but they were never able to finish the trilogy. Colton doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to watch the movies again.
In May, Alex showed up at Logan’s house to deliver her high school diploma. She refused to put on her cap and gown because she was determined to wear it to her real graduation and actually walk across the stage.
But when her graduation came, Logan had to watch the live stream from home as she was just too weak to attend. While Logan was realistic about the state of her condition, she wanted to focus on staying positive and looking toward the future.
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Alex believes this year’s band is the best he’s seen in the seven years he’s directed at East. The band now rarely complains when they have to wake up before sunrise to practice and put in extra work to hit the right notes — the kind of dedication they saw from Logan. Her memory motivates them to realize how lucky they are to do all the things they can and improves their overall work ethic, Toepfer says.
“When I wake up in the morning and I don’t feel very good or I’m bummed out that I’ve got a really busy day, like maybe I’m going to be working 15 hours [I think of her],” Alex said. “Logan would love to do that, and that’s what Logan wanted to do.”
After learning of her passing, band members wanted to honor Logan. They volunteered to play at her celebration of life as well as in the parish hall between her funeral mass and celebration of life.
“We had a really good turnout, probably about 60 kids or so,” Alex said. “And we all really bonded and cried together and that really kind of made us closer knit as a group, and I think we all appreciate each other a lot more.”
Alex has also renamed the band’s spirit award the Logan Lowrey Spirit Award — an award that she herself won three times.
The band marches on the field during every home football game with gold ribbons pinned on the left side of their uniforms — the gold ribbon representing childhood cancer and the left side so Logan remains close to their hearts as they play. Gina hasn’t missed a game.
“He’s done more than I could ever imagine to keep her memory alive,” Gina said.
Before she passed, Logan approved of The Logan Lowrey Memorial Fund, which puts together and donates Logan’s Loving Touch gift bags of essential oils and discounts for acupuncture and massages — things that helped Logan through her cancer journey. The foundation has already raised $4,000 through its Venmo account which will be donated to kids in treatment and hospitals.
Logan’s family and friends try to honor her legacy as best they can by moving forward and living their lives to the fullest extent. Because that’s what Logan would’ve done.
“She just was wholly invested in everything that she took part in, and she was like that before she had cancer,” Colton said. “It’s not like she had an eye-opening experience and started being nice to everybody or trying to experience life. She was just always like that. That’s just who she was.”
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