Continuing a legacy
Caleb Jackson Foundation honors Wash High student
Deja Glemba has to laugh when she remembers how her brother handled growing up with only sisters as siblings. Her brother, Caleb Jackson, was the only boy among the six kids.
“He was spoiled,” she chuckles. “So he knew that if he went to Mom and Dad and they said no, then he could come to Deja and she would say yes or, if she didn’t say yes, he would just go right down the line.”
But other than his sisters spoiling him, Deja says Caleb was a hard worker both on the football field and in the classroom at Washington High School. He was named All Conference and All District in football in 2019 and started working at 84 Lumber after graduating. Then, tragedy struck in 2021 when Caleb was killed in a motorcycle accident.
“You see a lot of times people lose a loved one, the name doesn’t keep going, and you don’t follow a story, and it just kind of falls to the wayside,” says Deja. “And we did not want that for Caleb. He was always very loving, giving, generous, supportive, always smiling, constantly. He had a great personality. Everyone loved him. Everyone loved to be around him, and we didn’t want to lose that.”
So the family started the Caleb Jackson Foundation to honor his legacy and support Wash High and the surrounding community. This month, the Caleb Jackson Foundation is the recipient of the Driven By Hope Award, sponsored by Washington Auto Mall.
Caleb’s parents, Randy and Cathy Jackson, and his five sisters – Deja Glemba, Shanda Workmaster, Lexie Fuller, Miranda Jackson and Cassidy Jackson – are proud to continue Caleb’s legacy. “As a family, we felt like, what can we do to honor Caleb and do things in his name so that we can keep his name in the present?” says Deja. “I feel like early on, we didn’t even really know what that meant. You know, we just wanted to come together, and we wanted to do something.”
The idea initially started with 84 Lumber donating a brand-new electronic scoreboard for Wash High Stadium to honor Caleb’s memory.
“That was a huge step for us, and from there, we felt like we just wanted to do more,” says Deja. “So we decided to do a scholarship. Every year, we give a scholarship to three outstanding Wash High senior football players. They’re voted on by their coaching staff to rate them on different things. And we offer scholarships for first, second and third place.”
The momentum grew when they were approached to partner with the annual Prexie Golf Classic.
“From there, we were able to keep bringing funds in that to do more with,” Deja says. “So now we do things like support the local schools as much as we can, even for things like their field trip T-shirts.”
One partnership is with Washington Park Elementary School, where the foundation helped to start Caleb’s Corner Store.
“Basically, it’s a store that rewards good behavior at Washington Park Elementary School kids for doing positive things throughout the day and weeks,” Deja explains. “They can receive these little coins, Prexie pennies, they call them. Kids can go shopping in Caleb’s Corner Store and the initial package of things that opened up the store, we donated all of those items for the kids to be able to buy with their Prexie pennies.”
The foundation also helps support the local food bank, especially during the holidays.
“We’ve been supporting the Community Circle Food Bank in Washington a lot. At Christmastime, we donated meals along with gift cards to families with food insecurity,” Deja says. “So we just keep finding ways that we feel like we can just do something, and at the end of the day, I feel like we just want to make Caleb proud.”
The biggest fundraiser for the Caleb Jackson Foundation is the annual golf outing.
“We always have a great turnout for that,” says Deja. “That’s a huge kind of fundraising effort for us. And then we also sell tickets throughout the year, just kind of like lottery tickets, to try to generate funds as well. And then donations can just be made, which we’ve received checks from so many people and friends and companies who have reached out and just sent donation checks to us so we can continue supporting the community.”
The annual golf classic will be held at Indian Run Golf Course in Avella on Saturday, Aug. 15. For more information on how to join or support that event and how to support the foundation, visit their Facebook page at The Caleb Jackson Foundation or contact them via email at calebjacksonfoundation@gmail.com.