He was a good-natured kid, crazy about magic tricks, card tricks and ever avid to show them off to any captive, sunny even in the darkest days.

In the 12 years he had before a rare form of bone cancer took his life in 2001, Scott Banke of McMinville Ore., radiated life-saving optimism to his beleaguered family and friends. Eleven-hundred people attended his funeral.

And when he was dying, Scott asked his family to build a play structure in the town, where the kids had none.

Five years later, and after many fundraisers and golf tournaments, the family had the million dollars it needed to complete and open “Scotty’s Playhouse.”

Having wrapped up that task, as Scott’s cousin, Brian Williams of Auburn, recalled, everyone in the family thought the work was done – but, as they soon realized, it was not done at all.

Indeed, it had just begun.

“Families priorities change with the diagnosis level of their child and things fall apart,” Williams explained. “And we had met many families with a sick child whose yards were in disrepair, who were putting off car maintenance, having problems making doctor appointments because they had no money for gas because money was going toward other things. The question was, ‘Was there a way we could support those families, help them out at least for a little bit?’ ”

Looking about, Williams discovered that while many charities were out there doing the good work of raising money for childhood cancer research, few were raising money to support families with sick or dying children.

So, in 2006, Williams’ family formalized the See Ya Later Foundation as a nonprofit, faith-based, nondenominational organization with the mission of helping families fraught by a child’s medical crisis.

The foundation took its title from a video Scott made on a Make-A-Wish cruise. According to the foundation’s website, “on one of the last clips, Scott turned the camera on himself and told of the day’s events ending by saying “See Ya Later!” The brief clip ended at Scott’s memorial service, telling more than 1,100 people “See ya later!”

And since 2010, when Williams launched the Auburn branch at the family’s request, the SYL Foundation has gone on to lighten the load of many local families.

“One of the things we wanted to do was provide sports camps to get other youth involved in the community who may not otherwise be involved because the cost of specialized camps was too much. And we created a scholarship program to encourage other high-schoolers to be impact makers in their communities,” Williams said.

While all three components make up the foundation’s mission here and elsewhere, family support remains the main thing with its leadership and many volunteers doing all they can to adopt at least one family each month.

“The thing I like most about what do is we always meet families where they are at a given time. For some that may be groceries, gas cards, a yard makeover. For others, it’s more family life experiences together, so they can go out and do things they otherwise could not afford to do.”

That is, thanks to the foundation, families who otherwise could not have afforded to do so have been in the stands at Seahawks’ or Sounders’ games. Some have been pleasantly stuffed into a limousine bound for the Museum of Pop Culture, ridden the Duck, done everything tourists would do.

Among those the foundation helped was the family of Avery Huffman, a student at Lakeland Hills Elementary School, whose battle with the brain cancer Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) ended last February.

Career as a cop

Williams doesn’t bring this up so the following news may come as a surprise to many who know him only in relation to the SYL Foundation, but the affable fellow is a police officer.

Indeed, he’s been with the Auburn Police Department for 21 years, the last 10 of them as a Traffic Unit sergeant.

“I am too crippled to be on a motorcycle myself but I am in charge of the bike unit,” Williams said.

Williams, a native of McMinnville, Ore., graduated from Seattle Christian High School in 1987 and went on to major in sociology at Western Washington University. His original idea had been to major in political science, but after a few weeks of college he realized that would not work for him.

Born in Portland, Ore., an only child with nary a cop in his family line, he got the idea to become a police officer watching the 1970s television show “CHiPS”.

“It looked like an interesting career,” Williams said. “But if my parents had their druthers, they probably would not have wanted me to go into law enforcement. My mother is always concerned about my safety.”

His father remains his hero to this day.

My dad just taught me to give everyone a chance, to be willing to talk to people and figure out what their needs are and solve problems, and I use all those skills in my job today,” Williams said.

Williams took a test with the Auburn Police Department in 1994 or 1995 when there were 900 applicants for four spots.

“Now, you can’t even give an application away. I came out in the top 30. The department knew who I was, and they got to my name eventually. I got hired and started in 1996 and have been here ever since,” Williams said.

“Through the department, I was tied in with the Law Enforcement Torch Run for years, and I was also a volunteer for the Detlef Schrempf Foundation, and through those two experiences I’ve just gained the experience to do event management and event planning and fundraising, and it’s become like a second nature to me. It’s great to see how much the foundation has grown.”

Williams and his wife have two children, both of them involved in sports, and he and his wife, herself involved with the foundation, make it a priority to attend as many of their games as possible.

Somehow Williams finds the time do it all, and with uncommon skill.

“With all I am involved with, sometimes even I wonder,” Williams said with a laugh.

For all that Williams is and does for the community, the Auburn Reporter has named him its Person of the Year.