09/29/2026
September 26, 2017. ❤️ Remembering Leah Loomis
Nine years ago, Northeastern Pennsylvania lost a 17-year-old young woman named Leah Loomis.
Leah was a senior at Lakeland, captain of the Lakeland Chiefs Basketball Cheerleaders and a member of the football cheerleading team. Her family described a girl who lived life to the fullest, with a signature smile, infectious laugh and a love for her friends and family.
Her death shook our community. It certainly affected me.
At the time, I was photographing youth sports throughout the area and had become, somewhat jokingly, the “Cheertographer” for the Valley View cheerleaders. In the days after Leah's death, I remember driving home from Scranton thinking over and over:
What could the cheerleading community possibly do for her and her family?
Then, sitting at a traffic light, an idea popped into my head.
What if we could get as many cheerleaders as possible, from as many schools as possible, onto Leah's home football field and form a heart?
I started making phone calls. Coaches called other coaches. They contacted their cheerleaders. Word spread quickly. It was all happening on incredibly short notice, and I really had no idea what to expect.
Then they started showing up.
242 cheerleaders. Different schools. Different uniforms. Different rivalries. One heart.
They stood together on Lakeland's field and formed this heart for Leah.
What made the moment even more meaningful was that her family had no idea we had done it. I had a large print made for them. I remember being nervous about giving it to them because I didn't know how something like this would be received in the midst of such unimaginable grief. I will never forget their reaction. It's one of those moments in my life that has never left me.
Nine years later, when I look at this photograph, I don't see the logistics of getting 242 people onto a football field. I don't see all the phone calls or everything that went into making it happen.
I see 242 young women who simply showed up.
I see coaches and schools that didn't hesitate when someone asked them to come together for another family.
I see a community that put school colors and rivalries aside when one of its own was hurting.
And right there, on Leah's home football field, I see one giant heart for a girl who was loved by so many.
I've taken hundreds of thousands of photographs over the years. Many captured moments I'm proud of.
But very few have ever meant as much to me as this one.
Nine years later, that heart is still for you, Leah. ❤️
