Cooper's spirit lives on through helping others

Aug. 13, 2021

By David Nordby

The Brillion News

Please see the full version of this story in the Aug. 12, 2021 print edition of The Brillion News.

REEDSVILLE – It has been more than ten years since Cooper Beaupre passed away at four-years old. In the time that followed unimaginable tragedy in April 2011, his parents, Sara and Dan, have taken his spirit and created a legacy of helping others.

The annual Shoot 4 Coop event became a staple of Reedsville since the 2011 summer. Last Sunday, Sara and Dan hosted it for the final time.

“It was such a great event. There’s so many people. It was an emotional event because clearly it was our last year,” Sara said. “Boy, was it an amazing day. It really was.”

The family has reached their endowment goal at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, the primary recipient of donations from the Shoot for Cooper Inc. nonprofit group the two established after Cooper’s passing.

"We will always continue to fund children’s hospital and support the community with the donations that we’ve received. Really, the only thing that has ended is the live event,” Sara said.

2020, because of COVID-19, was the only year the event was not held since Cooper’s passing.

“We thought we would correlate … him being gone for 10 years and this being our tenth year [of the event],” Sara said. “We met our goal with the endowment fund that we have at Children’s Hospital. We all just came together as a group.”

Around 100 people showed up for the first Shoot 4 Coop in 2011. This past weekend close to 1,000 from around Northeast Wisconsin attended the event.

“It was pretty much brought together by some friends and some acquaintances from Reedsville Sportsman Club. It was a small event compared to what it was [Sunday],” Dan said.

Donations

The first event raised $14,000. In the nine years that followed, the nonprofit has raised more than $500,000.

“We did really achieve all of our goals that we wanted to produce from the get-go,” Dan said.