The Be the Light Foundation enters its fifth year of raising money and supporting the community in remembrance of Ari Arteaga. Arteaga passed away in a devastating car accident at 16. Through this initiative, his memory and light live on.
Before the incident, he spread the words ‘be the light,’ and even included it in his Instagram bio as a phrase that he lived by. He attended Christopher Columbus High School and valued a philosophical education. At Columbus, he dedicated himself to his sports: baseball and football.
The foundation hosts various types of events all year, some of which shine a light on Arteaga’s passions. The foundation hosts food and toiletry drives to help kids and support multiple organizations, as well as fishing tournaments, cocktail gallas, singalongs and their annual walkathon. However, the foundation is most recognized for its football and baseball events.
“Ari loved to play sports — especially football and baseball — so we hold our annual football tournament, which is our biggest event to raise money for the scholarships. He loved coming together with his friends to play a friendly game of flag football. Our other biggest event is the baseball game,” Vice President of Be The Light and Ari’s mother Ysha Arteaga said.
The baseball game brings the community together in Ari’s legacy, as two of Miami’s biggest high school rivals go to bat in a friendly competition. In 2019, Belen Jesuit played against Florida Christian and raised $12,000.
Friends and family of Arteaga say he had this light and energy about him, setting him apart from others. The mission of the foundation is to provide scholarships to other dedicated students who embody similar characteristics to Arteaga. These students are not privileged with the opportunity to afford a private Christian high school education, thus this scholarship provides that opportunity, as well as financial aid for higher education following high school. Additionally, receiving students will be given financial support in the case of hardships.
This program has grown substantially over the past five years and now awards 21 deserving students with a scholarship each year. This year, they began their leadership and mentorship program.
“Many scholarship recipients fear for what their next step will be after graduating high school. This program helps them prepare and connect them with resources to get there,” Arteaga said.
The basis of the scholarship is determined by the characteristics that represent Arteaga: having a heart for service, making people feel cared for, bringing out the best in others, selflessness and joy and enthusiasm. Other considerations in deciding on students who are eligible to receive the scholarship include GPA, community service, school attendance, financial status and experience in financial hardship due to illness of the student or family member.
“Ari was a wonderful human being; he was in touch with humanity. He valued and spread kindness, joy and laughter,” Arteaga said. “People were in need of the light that left when he passed.”
As one of their biggest events to raise money for the Be The Light Foundation, each year they put on a friendly flag football tournament for high school students to participate in.
“I heard about Be The Light because everyone was doing it and wearing the shirts,” Miami Palmetto Senior High senior David Krawczyk said. “Preparing for the tournament created a bond between my team and during the tournament, we played really well and created an even stronger bond and became closer friends throughout. We [started out as] just a team of lacrosse players and one baseball player, and went in there and competed, and went undefeated and were so close to championship. It was incredible. More importantly, it was so fun throughout the whole tournament and I created friendships.”
The center of this organization is faith and religion, as the goal is to provide Christian education for underprivileged students. Faith and hope are important to the Arteaga family, as they got them through the dark and scary tunnel after their son’s passing, and allowed them to find the light on the other side.
“Faith and Christianity, something our family really values, is important to the healing process. It made life a bit easier for us; we turned to faith, we turned to God and we turned to prayer to help us get through this,” Arteaga said. “It’s healing when you do something good — you see the light, you see the joy, you see the hope.”
