Before Aiden’s OG Mom Chel, Sister Hailey, and Chel’s husband Graham, left San Francisco to return home to Scotland, we stopped at Crissy Field Park with his Grandma, Aunt Ginger and Uncle Eric where Aiden spent some of his favorite times as a mentor with the youth group there. We went to the park shop and while there, noticed a picture on the wall. Of course Aiden was in it. The following is a letter from Ernesto and Sam regarding Aiden’s time with their program.

December 13^th 2024

Aiden’s Family,

Our hearts are with Aiden and your entire family.  We met Aiden several years ago when he joined our youth programs team as a summer intern where he helped lead our summer Middle School program UTB (urban trail blazers).  Aiden immediately connected to our youth program community here at the Crissy Field Center.  His energy and beautiful spirit made it easy to get to know him.  What we did not realize was how talented an educator and youth worker Aiden would become. Over the next several summers Aiden would return to help lead the UTB program as a lead instructor and educator.  Aidens ability to connect with youth, his passion for the outdoors was magic.  Every program day we could see Aiden was excited to be here to welcome young people to this park.  The youth teams he led had a strong community, he would ensure youth felt safe, felt challenged, and were listened to.

His fellow educators loved laughing and learning with Aiden, he was always there to support his team members and would always find time to make our community smile.

We have been running youth development / environmental education programs for over 20 years. And if there is one thing we know, its that when working with youth, youth workers have the ability to find and show their best self.  and this invites young people to find and be their best self.  Middle school age is a really difficult and chaotic time for young people.  For a lot of educators, Middle School age is the group they fear and do not want to work with the most.  Youth are just starting to formulate their sense of values and identity and with that comes a wide range of emotions and challenges.  At this age young people need to feel a sense of being challenged and also need to feel proud of who they are and who they can become.  Aiden built amazing relationships with the middle school participants and our high school leaders.  We could see how much they enjoyed being around Aiden, telling him about their thoughts and opinions. Asking him questions.  We can see Aiden loved to listen, loved to show them he cared.

As a teacher and mentor Aiden helped the youth he worked with feel a sense of trust with him, with our programs, but most importantly he helped young people trust themselves.  We ask youth to meet new people, jump into new experiences like camping or kayaking, and Aiden had the ability to help young people feel comfortable in that discomfort.  He did this for staff as well.  Aiden helped young people who didn’t know each other, didn’t know this park, still getting to know themselves, he helped them build a community with one another. He had an amazing gift for bringing young people together.

We were excited every year Aiden decided to come back because we knew we had someone who worked to protect and inspire the young people we welcomed to the park. Aiden had an enormous impact on the youth he worked with, the staff who worked alongside him.

We are so thankful to have spent summers with Aiden and watched him create magic with our youth programs.  We are forever thankful for the heart he shared with us.

With love and community

The Crissy Field Center Community

Ernesto Pepito (Associate Director, Youth Leadership)

Sam Tran (Program Manager, Middle School)