By Mary O’KEEFE

On the morning of March 7, Amir Teymouri lost his life in a car accident on La Tuna Canyon.

Teymouri was a family man and a member of Montrose Church where both he and his wife were volunteers.

“I went to school with him at [Crescenta Valley High School],” said John Harvey, junior high pastor at Montrose Church. “I kept asking him to get involved with the junior high [group at the church].”

Montrose Church has an active, and popular, youth program. Harvey knew that his friend Teymouri would be a good leader for the junior high kids but Teymouri was not convinced.

“Then I saw him at last year’s Special Olympics at CVHS,” he said.

Teymouri was helping at the event and Harvey convinced him to come and help the youth group.

“At first I didn’t think he was going to stay [with it], but he really dug in and liked it,” he said.

In fact not only did he like volunteering, he became a leader that the kids could trust and go to with any problems. His approach was less heavy handed and more “stealthy,” said Harvey.

“He had a great insight on life,” Harvey said.

Teymouri spoke to the kids about how to deal with recent tragedies in the community and how to get help when needed.

“The kids are pretty sad [after hearing of his death]. They all went on Instagram [immediately] to share pictures and stories of [Teymouri],” Harvey said. “I think what freaks them out is that we were all together 12 hours earlier.”

The church is raising money for the family to help with expenses. They held a candlelight vigil on Wednesday and although Teymouri’s memorial is on Saturday, Harvey said the kids and those who knew him needed more time to be together to grieve and to remember Teymouri’s life.

Memorials continue to be scheduled. Jeff Carr’s son attends Montrose Church’s junior high youth group. Teymouri was training to run the Los Angeles Marathon this Sunday. Carr was training for an upcoming triathlon. The two compared notes on training, both excited about their upcoming challenges. Carr knew how important this race was for Teymouri and wanted to run it in honor of him. But the race is only a few days away and there’s not enough time to train. So Carr teamed up with five of Teymouri’s friends and relatives to tag team the L.A. Marathon.

“Inspired to run by a man who lived to make hope real for kids, we run to raise money to support his family and we run to raise hope,” Carr stated in a letter to supporters.

Anyone who would like to donate or sponsor the run to in support of Teymouri’s family can do so by making checks payable to Montrose Church with “Teymouri Family Fund” in the memo line. Mail the donations to Montrose Church, 2678 Honolulu Ave., Montrose 91020. Or send an electronic donation through http://montrosechurch.org/teymouri.

  Mary Okeefe