The DomWorthy Fund

Helping a buddy out, the way Dom always did.

THE CAUSE

The DomWorthy Fund was created to keep one of the very best parts of Dominic alive: the way he showed up for people.

Dom had a big heart, and he helped in his own very Dominic way. If a buddy had a flat tire, a car broke down, someone was stranded, or a friend simply needed an extra set of hands, he was the kind of person who would drop what he was doing and go help.

We want to keep doing that in his name.

The DomWorthy Fund will be used to help people who have hit a flat tire in life, who feel broken down, or who simply need someone to help them get moving again.

That might mean paying an unexpected mechanic bill for a family who cannot afford to get their car back on the road.

It might mean helping an eighteen year old attend technical school and learn a trade.

It might mean putting tools into the hands of kids and teaching them that they are capable of building, fixing, and creating something with their own two hands.

There will not always be one specific definition of what qualifies.

We just want to be able to look at an opportunity to help someone and say:

“Dom would have done that.” - That’s DomWorthy.

ABOUT DOMINIC

Our beautiful Dominic graduated from this life far earlier than any of us imagined.

There are no words big enough for who he was, but if there was one thing people knew about Dominic, it was that he showed up.

Since his passing, friend after friend has shared stories of moments when they needed help and Dominic was simply there. Someone was stranded. A car would not start. Something needed fixing. Life had gone sideways.

Dom came.

That was just who he was.

He had the most mischievous smile, big beautiful hazel eyes, and an incredibly tender heart. He loved deeply. He adored animals and babies, and those who knew him could easily picture him one day becoming an incredible father.

He was mechanically gifted and endlessly curious. He could take an engine apart, figure out how it worked, and somehow put the whole thing back together again. He loved cars, tools, building things, solving problems, and learning by doing.

Traditional paths were rarely Dominic’s style.

He preferred to blaze his own.

He was also always ready for an adventure.

Just weeks before his passing, Dominic took a last minute trip to Tokyo. He spent ten days exploring, creating, dreaming, and experiencing life. He returned home excited about what might come next, including ideas for a new business and the possibility of building a life in Japan.

He was twenty years old and standing at the beginning of so much.

WHAT HAPPENED

On Thursday evening, Dominic was spending time with friends when he was given something he understood to be a sleep aid.

Tragically, what he was given was not what he believed it to be.

Within hours, Dominic’s heart stopped.

Paramedics worked on him for approximately fifteen minutes and were able to restore his heartbeat. He was taken to the hospital, where medical teams worked tirelessly to care for him while his family waited, prayed, and hoped for recovery.

Over the days that followed, the appropriate neurological testing was completed.

The damage to Dominic’s brain was ultimately determined to be unsurvivable.

It was the news no family ever expects to receive.

And yet, even in the middle of unimaginable loss, another part of Dominic’s story began to unfold.

DOMINIC’S FINAL GIFT

When the possibility of organ donation was discussed, it immediately felt consistent with the person Dominic had always been.

He helped people.

Then his family learned something remarkable.

On May 2, 2022, when Dominic was just sixteen years old, he had already made that decision for himself.

Dominic had registered to become an organ donor.

Long before anyone knew how meaningful that choice would become, a sixteen year old boy had quietly decided that if he ever had the opportunity to save another person’s life, he wanted to do it.

Even now, Dominic is showing up for people.

His organs have the potential to give others more birthdays, more Christmas mornings, more ordinary Tuesdays, more hugs, more adventures, and more time with the people they love.

His family has found tremendous peace in knowing that although they will not get to watch Dominic become a father in this life, he may help another father stay here to raise his children.

That is who Dom was.

And that is the spirit behind this fund.

KEEPING DOM’S LIGHT MOVING

The DomWorthy Fund is not simply a memorial.

It is an invitation to keep Dominic’s way of living moving through the world.

To notice the person who is stuck.

To stop when someone needs help.

To use what you know.

To share what you have.

To give someone a hand when life breaks down.

Every contribution to this fund will help create opportunities to do exactly that in Dominic’s name.

Sometimes it may be a car repair.

Sometimes it may be tuition.

Sometimes it may be tools, training, mentorship, or an opportunity someone could not otherwise afford.

And sometimes it may be something we have not even imagined yet.

We hope this fund becomes a living legacy, one that allows Dominic’s generous, adventurous, mechanically minded, slightly mischievous spirit to continue making its way into other people’s stories.

A little help at exactly the right moment.

A person willing to show up.

A way forward when someone feels stuck.

DomWorthy.

Thank you for loving Dominic.

Thank you for honoring his life.

And thank you for helping us put a little more of Dom into the world.

Help a buddy out.

Get someone back on the road.

Do something DomWorthy.