HE WENT TO SUMMER CAMP TO MAKE MEMORIES — THEN A FREAK ACCIDENT TOOK HIS LIFE
HE WENT TO SUMMER CAMP TO MAKE MEMORIES — THEN A FREAK ACCIDENT TOOK HIS LIFE
Eight-year-old Mason Sundberg was supposed to be spending his summer making the kind of memories children carry with them for years.
Instead, his family is now trying to remember a little boy whose life ended in a sudden and devastating accident.
Mason was attending YMCA Camp Chickami in Wayland, Massachusetts, when a falling tree struck him Tuesday morning.
He was seriously injured and airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he later died.
A CHILD KNOWN FOR HIS IMAGINATION
To his family, Mason was far more than the child at the center of a tragic news story.
They remembered him as funny, loving and empathetic — a boy whose imagination seemed to follow him everywhere.
He loved video games.
He loved sushi.
He enjoyed skiing and swimming.
He adored his dog, River.
And he loved turning ordinary moments into something memorable.
One of his habits now feels especially heartbreaking.
Mason carried a notebook where he wrote stories and made drawings.
A small object that captured the world as he saw it.
A SUMMER DAY THAT ENDED IN TRAGEDY
The circumstances of the accident are now being investigated.
A camp employee was also injured in the incident but was treated and released from the hospital.
For Mason’s family, however, there is no simple recovery from what happened.
A child who left home for summer camp will not be coming back.
Instead, his parents and loved ones are left with photographs, memories and the stories he left behind.
“NEVER FORGOTTEN”
The West Suburban YMCA said it was devastated by Mason’s death and expressed its support for his family and everyone affected by the tragedy.
But perhaps the most powerful tribute is the one coming from the people who knew Mason best.
They are remembering a boy who danced and sang around his home.
A boy who loved holidays.
A boy who imagined stories and put them on paper.
A boy who was only 8 years old.
HE WENT TO CAMP FOR THE SUMMER.
HIS FAMILY WILL REMEMBER HIM FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.
Mason’s story is no longer simply about the accident that took him.
It is about the little boy he was before that moment — the laughter, the drawings, the imagination and the memories that his family says will never disappear.
Mason Sundberg will be remembered.
