Two months ago Luke and Heather Pohl were preparing for his brother’s wedding.

The couple joined the rest of the wedding party in Wisconsin to help with last minute details. While the girls were working on flower arrangements, six guys decided to go on a boat ride on the Chippewa River. Three of those men didn’t return.

On their way back, the boat was involved in a head on crash. One of the men killed that night was Heather Pohl’s husband. 

“I get very emotional when I try to speak about him,” Heather Pohl said. “In two words, my husband was simply amazing.”

Pohl leaves behind his wife, a five-year-old son and another son who is due in January.

“Being a daddy was his world,” she said. “Our son Austin is a spitting image of Luke.  His daddy taught him so much in the five years they were together and when I became pregnant for a second time, Luke was overjoyed with happiness.”

Friends say the 25-year-old Maple Grove Senior High School grad was as a friend to everyone.

“He was such a good person,” Angela Svendsen said who met Luke in junior high school. “He would do anything for anybody. He was just a great guy to be around.”

Svendsen is now organizing a benefit this Saturday for the Pohl family to help with expenses. 

“So many people want to be involved in the benefit and that’s great,” she said. “We have hundreds of silent auction items and we really hope everyone will come out to support the family.”

For Heather Pohl, the outpouring of support has already been overwhelming.

“The people that surround us mean the absolute world to us,” she said.  “The love that we have in our circle of friends and family is so great.”

As Luke’s wife and friends grieve, “I hurt everyday,” Angela Svedsen said. “I hurt the most for Heather,” they hope the benefit will be a way for friends and family to gather and remember the memories they shared with a man they say was their “best friend in the world.”

The benefit will be held this Saturday, Oct. 1 at Maple Tavern in Maple Grove at 4:00 p.m.