ABOUT THE JAKE OFFUTT FOUNDATION

Jake was born a normal healthy baby boy on June 1, 2000. He was our only child and the light of our lives.  Jake grew up doing all
the normal things that kids do. He had an extremely kind and respectful heart. He was a wonderful friend to all, a good student, and a wonderful martial artist.  He was an extraordinary person who continues to mean the world to us.  He is now our guardian angel.

Jake suffered for many years with migraine headaches. In 2014, they seemed to become more frequent so we scheduled an appointment with a new pediatric neurologist to see if Jake could find relief through a new doctor. On December 17, 2014 we took Jake to his new neurologist and that marked the day that our lives changed forever. What we had planned on being a routine visit had us discovering that Jake had a tumor on his brain stem. Within the next two weeks, he had surgery to remove most of the tumor and then learned his tumor was a high grade, very aggressive form of brain cancer known as anaplastic astrocytoma that is hard to treat and difficult to cure.

Jake underwent six weeks of daily radiation treatments and chemotherapy. On March 24, 2015, Jake experienced a major setback when he had a brain aneurysm. This unfortunately caused many severe medical problems including vision problems, and fine motor weakness for Jake that led to many weeks in the hospital at a time. All of these medical issues began to take their toll on Jake’s body. Amazingly, throughout his entire illness, Jake remained so strong and brave. No matter what he was going through, Jake remained a kind hearted well-mannered young man. Many people looked up to Jake because he fought so hard. Unfortunately, Jake passed away July 13, 2015, just 7 short months after his diagnosis. His story has touched the lives of thousands of friends, family and complete strangers, and it is our hope to keep his memory alive.

Jake’s passion was martial arts. His dream was to continue in his martial art and eventually become an instructor at Tristar Martial Arts. Jake embodied everything that Tristar teaches: Modesty, Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Courage, and Indomitable Spirit. We believe Jake would want his name to carry on in the Tristar dojos. As a way to do so, we spread Jake’s love, dedication, and commitment to martial arts with those who may not be able to afford to attend classes by providing scholarships to Tristar Martial Arts.  Individuals requesting a scholarship need to have a desire to possess a high ethical and moral standard as well as a positive attitude in their life. Our goal is to provide tuition assistance so that students can “Embrace the Warrior Within”.