From Faith, 1/15/2014

Anthony,

I wrote a song about you in Nashville this past year. I imagine you would have had a million songs poured out of your soul by now. Your sense of adventure and your love for life and your creativity fuel my fire.

Everyday I think of the limitless possibilities if what life may have been like if you were still here. Yet, you’re not here and even your absence has such a profound effect on my life and the life of so many others. You inspire me to live to the fullest, to appreciate what I do have, to take advantage of opportunities because you never know when those opportunities will be gone.

I love you from the very depths of my heart Anthony. Thank you for being such an inspiration on my life. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for all the smiles and laughs.

Feeling your light and warmth,

Faith

I’ve known Anthony for about 5 years and I have had great memories with him! I remember when we were in 5th or 6th grade and the office would go over the intercom and say “there’s a car parked outside with its headlights on” and Anthony would start walkin out of the room sayin “that’s mine.” He was a great kid! I think about him all the time. It took me awhile to realize he was gone until school started. The first few days it was really hard! I miss you so much Anthony.

Anthony was a really cool and nice kid. He was always great to hang out with. We usually went skateboarding. We made 3 or 4 movies together. He had a lot of talent and skills. He was an excellent guitar player and a good skateboarder. He was an awesome friend, I considered him like a brother.

Anthony was one of the best friends I have ever had. Even when we had our differences, we worked them out and our friendship became stronger than ever. I’m proud to have been called his friend. I really miss him and there is not a day that goes by that i don’t think about Anthony.

Ethan R.

Anthony did such a good impression of Napoleon Dynamite!!

Yesssssss.

Goshh!

I’ve known Anthony since he moved here in about second grade… I can only think of good memories I’ve had with him! Like when he jumped up on his chair to assume his usual position and completely missed the chair,  or when he was mine and Kirstin’s “dad” and gave us “the talk” after we snuck out at night. I can remember when he dressed up like a girl in Mrs. Geerdes classroom for a character for a book report…only Anthony would be brave enough to do that!

He was such a great kid, I’ve never ever had a bad time with him…he’d always be the one to cheer you up…he was funny, nice and extremely smart..you couldn’t ask for a better kid. Its been really hard not having Anthony around, it’s so weird not to have him around always smiling and cracking a joke.

From Kim, 12/29/2009

Anthony made such an impression on my family. My kids were very small when we spent time with the Vos family but they still remember Anthony & Evan often. Anthony was so patient and kind with my kids. And what a whip-smart sense of humor he had. I feel fortunate to have known this kind, generous and intelligent young man. The world lost a lot when it lost Anthony.

We miss you, kid.

~ K, O & H

From Emily S., 10/5/2005

I remember on the Science Fair Trip to Ames, when we were told that he would be sharing a room with Mr. Brasser and Ryan, with only two beds.

Since guys these days aren’t very mature, Anthony and Ryan didn’t want to share a bed. So Anthony slept in the tub. He did this for two nights. It was so funny when he told us that he was going to, but we didn’t think that he was serious. In the morning when we got on the bus, they told us that he really had slept in the tub, and we laughed until we got there.

During the breaks in the Science Fair, he and Ryan went to the very top of the stands, and shot spitballs at all of the other people. Sammi, Faith, and I didn’t want to get in trouble by going up there, so we didn’t. I regret not doing things like that now. I will remember every minute I spent with him, and cherish it for the rest of my life. It was better to know him for a little while, than to not have known him at all.

Anthony was one of those people that were all in their personal world of fun! I remember last year in art he always drew war and things like that. He was a cool dude. 8) What I remember about Anthony is that he would be so nice to people if they really were feeling bad. Anthony was one of my very good friends. I am very mad that he is not here to share all the things that are happening now.

From Allison S, 9/30/2005

Whenever you were around Anthony, u always HAD to laugh! He was hilarious! Last year in Mrs. Ruever’s class

I sat by Anthony the last quarter of the year and he would always tell me all these funny stories, like when he went over to ryan’s house and they gelled his cat, and then he would always bring these skater magazines and tell me what he was gonna get, and what he said posers supposively wear.

And in Mrs. Geerdes’ class when he dressed up as a girl for a book report! In Mrs. Wallin’s class he had kirstin writing blah blah blah over a whole bunch of pages so he could use it for wall paper or put it on his walls, but Mrs. Wallin took it away. He would always draw skateboards on his papers. I remember at Miranda’s party they all brought their skateboards and just skated the whole time.

And all of his shirts he wore were really funny. He wore the same ones a lot so one day he said he was going to prove to me that he had more shirts then the ones he wore most of the time. I really miss him…

I remember last year in Mrs. Geerdes’ class I sat at a table with Anthony and he showed me all the stories that he had written and we laughed at them. Then later he tried to shine the sunlight in Mrs. Haack’s eyes and she started yelling at him. He was such a character.

I’ve known Anthony for a long time…I think since he moved here…which was in 2nd grade. He was sooo funny..from the time when he got up in front of class and was trying to act out the story Mrs. Golden was reading, to the time where he was trying to push me out of the class in Mr. Brasser’s roll-y chair during CIP class. We have had so many memories that I’ll never forget!

He was a very good friend and will always be in my heart.

Anthony was a great kid. We had a lot of fun skateboarding, climbing trees, camping, and doing other fun things together. We used to sit in his basement and play video games together. We would sit out in his yard and build little cities in the dirt with our little army men and Hotwheels. We made one so big it took up at least a fourth of his back yard.

We tried to make a tree house two or three summers ago but we only got the floor built in then it kinda ended up being a ground house because we couldn’t figure out how to get the walls into the tree. So we built a couch and a table and sat on the ground and listened to music and ate snacks and drank soda. We sat there and told jokes and spray painted stuff.

I remember how we would try to get enough money to buy a bag of candy and some soda. We really had some good times together. He made me laugh and have fun with some of the weirdest things.

No matter what, he always had a way to make things fun, and the funny thing is that it worked.

Well, I didn’t know Anthony very long (only one school year) but I have so many memories of him. I remember when he came on a few church trips with us. It was pretty funny, Anthony, Cole, and Ethan were always being weird. Having them together was just great. He also wrote many books. I remember that he wrote them and he was going to give one to me but he never got a chance. They were just so funny though.