CHICORA — Thirty-three purple lanterns set sail from Kim Buck's driveway Friday night.

It's not exactly the senior night celebration she'd always envisioned for her son Briggs. Instead, it was a heart-wrenching and beautiful tribute and stunning memorial by 128 friends and family.

Briggs R. Buck was 16 when he died in an ATV crash Feb. 27, 2015. He's remembered as a good-spirited teen who loved to hunt, gather with his buddies and participate in the weightlifting club and play running back for the football team.

“This was a way to keep him a part of the football team every Friday night,” Elyse (Williams) Kaufman said of her dedication to releasing at least one lantern every Friday night that the Karns City Gremlins take the football field.

For nearly a lifetime, Kaufman and her family were neighbors to the Bucks. Cullen Williams, Kaufman's brother, is the same age as Briggs, was one of Briggs' best friends and was a teammate on the football team.

The two families live on opposite sides of a creek.

“The two boys used to run back and forth all the time growing up,” said Kim Buck, “They were more like brothers.”

The pain felt by the Buck family is incomparable, Kaufman said, but her family also was devastated.

“When you are together that often and then he is gone ...” Kaufman said. “This is a small community. When something this tragic happens, everyone is affected.”

Both the school and the community have done a number of remarkable things to memorialize Briggs, including setting off balloons at the first football game last season which fell on his birthday. Last year, a student from Moniteau gifted $4,775 he raised as his senior project to the weightlifting club at Karns City in Briggs' memory.

Until now, the lantern lighting was not a public event. After every game, the Williams family would wait for Cullen to get home from the game and gather on their porch.

Then, they'd send a text message to the Bucks, who would gather on their porch.

The Williams family would set off a lantern that the Buck family could watch from their porch.

Both families found comfort in the weekly ritual.

“They have ministered to us,” Kim Buck said. “They can't even know how much they have ministered to us.”

They set off a lantern following every game: rain, snow, home, away and playoffs ... at least 25 so far.

“And sometimes it was really late at night,” Kaufman said.

On this occasion, the two families decided to keep the tradition at home but invite Brigg's friends. A flyer went out inviting anyone who was interested.

The goal was to get all 33 lanterns in the air at one time, the same number as his jersey.

“It is important to me because Briggs was my brother's best friend, he was like a part of our family and a part of the Karns City football team. It just doesn't feel right with him not being there on the field with my brother, so I felt like we needed to do something to keep him a part of the team every Friday night.”

Cullen, as a co-captain of the football team, was one of the people who took Briggs' jersey onto the field for the home opener this season.

Last night, before the friends and family arrived at the Buck home, they watched the Gremlins defeat Clarion, 31-7.

Cullen and Kaufman say they're not sure if or how they will carry the tradition into next season.

“I'll be in college. I'll be playing football in college,” Cullen said. “And I know I will think of him every time I step onto the field.”