Aubrie Peña Legacy Foundation

08/29/2026

Thank you to everyone who purchased these delicious malasadas!🍩💛 We hope you enjoyed every bite!

If you loved them, please take a moment to leave them a 5⭐️ review and show this local business some love! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We absolutely LOVE meeting local businesses, supporting one another, and creating partnerships that turn into genuine friendships.🫶🏼
That’s what community is all about!

Thank you for supporting our small business and the amazing local businesses we get to partner with. ❤️ Wiki-licious

08/21/2026

10 MILES LEFT! 🏃🏽‍♀️💛

I’m opening these final 10 miles to anyone who would like to CLAIM A MILE in honor or memory of someone whose life has been touched by cancer.

You can claim a mile for someone who is:
🎗️ A loved one we’ve lost to cancer
🎗️ Currently fighting cancer
🎗️ A cancer survivor
🎗️ A caregiver standing beside someone through their journey
🎗️ Someone who has made an impact in your life through their cancer journey
Your person. Their story. Their mile. ❤️

For every mile I run, I’ll carry their name and their story with me. I’ll think of the fighters, the survivors, the caregivers, the families, and those we wish were still here.

Update we got 6 miles CLAIMED 🙌🏼💛
Claim your mile below! Click on the link.

📢📢got my first mile claimed 🙌🏼🙌🏼
Another mile claimed 🌻
Two more!

I’m PROUD to share that I will be running my VERY FIRST marathon as a charity partner for the Sarcoma Foundation of America during the Los Angeles Marathon March 2027! 🥹

As part of my fundraising journey, I will be dedicating each mile of the marathon to someone impacted by cancer whether they are currently fighting, a survivor, or someone forever remembered. This tribute is open to ALL cancers, not just sarcoma. 🤍

✨ Sponsor a mile: $50
✨ Send me a photo + short bio/story about your loved one
✨ I will proudly carry their story with me throughout my 26.2 mile journey

If you would simply like to support my marathon fundraising efforts, donations of any amount are deeply appreciated and help support an incredible cause.

This marathon is so much bigger than running. It’s about honoring lives, sharing stories, remembering loved ones, and running with purpose every single step of the way. Part of my running journey, when I feel like giving up, I remember everything that Aubrie went through.🎗️

Here’s to 26.2 miles of hope, honor, love, and strength. ❤️

https://donate.hakuapp.com/donations/new?fundraiser=66bbe3c17f3bdd9e4057
Be sure to click the link above to claim your mile.

08/21/2026

Thank you to Voyage Austin for the article piece on the APLF 💛💛

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria. Hi Maria , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?Fall of 2022, our daughter Aubrie (13) […]

08/19/2026

08/18/2026

Today would have been your first last day of Senior year. A day you and I have both talked about and a day you probably dreamt about.

I just picture you at your vanity with all your makeup spread out. And I know you would have had your outfit ready. I would have made sure your tank was full of gas. And dad would have had your car all detailed. Your Stanley cup full of water and your purse and backpack with all your necessities.

I’m so proud of all your friends who will also be graduating too. I’m sure it hasn’t been easy for them too. I hope you speak to them like you do me. Telling them to keep going!

I can only imagine Aubrie. But this school year we will honor you forever and always.

Class of 2027 🫶🏼 Go Dawgs

08/14/2026

We are 5 days away from our fundraiser 🩷
Be sure to place your orders

When the amazing team at Wikilicious asked about Aubrie's story, I shared something that has always stayed with me.

One of Aubrie's biggest dreams was to visit Hawaii. Through Make-A-Wish, that dream became a reality.

For one unforgettable week, cancer didn't define our lives. There were no hospital rooms. No treatments. No fear. There was laughter, adventure, and memories we will cherish forever.

For that entire week, Aubrie was cancer-free in our eyes. She was invincible.
That trip reminded us how powerful hope can be.

Today, Wikilicious is helping us continue that hope by partnering with the Aubrie Peña Legacy Foundation. Every purchase helps us raise awareness for childhood cancer and sarcoma, support families walking this journey, provide scholarships, and continue Aubrie's legacy of kindness.

We are so grateful to Wikilicious for believing in our mission and helping us make a difference one sweet treat at a time. 💗🦋

Thank you for helping keep Aubrie's light shining.

*** 8/19. I will pick up and distribute 🫶🏼

https://www.hotplate.com/wikiliciousatx

08/12/2026

In Loving Memory of Anastasio “Stacey” Lopez

The Aubrie Peña Legacy Foundation is deeply saddened by the passing of Anastasio “Stacey” Lopez, President of LULAC Council 4221.

We are still processing this heartbreaking news. Stacey was not only a leader within LULAC, but a passionate advocate for the Latino community, for students and youth, and for people throughout our community and surrounding areas.

Nearly three years ago, our paths crossed, and that connection became incredibly meaningful to the Aubrie Peña Legacy Foundation. Because of Stacey’s leadership, support, and belief in our mission, we were given the opportunity to partner with LULAC to award scholarships in Aubrie’s name.

Those scholarships mean so much to our foundation and to our family. Knowing that Aubrie’s name will continue to be spoken, remembered, and connected to opportunities for young people is a beautiful part of her legacy and Stacey played an important role in making that possible.

But Stacey taught me something else that I will carry with me: support the people and businesses that support your community. He taught me to spend my money with local businesses that give back, show up, and invest in the communities they serve. It may seem like a simple lesson, but it is one I will never forget. Because of Stacey, I became even more intentional about supporting those who support causes like ours.

It is especially difficult to process this loss knowing that we spoke with Stacey just last week. It is a reminder of how precious life and the people we meet along the way truly are.

Our deepest prayers and condolences go out to Stacey’s sons, his family, his LULAC family, and everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.

Thank you, Stacey, for your advocacy, your service, your friendship, and for believing in the power of education and in the next generation. Thank you for believing in us and for helping us carry Aubrie’s legacy forward.

Your impact will live on through the lives you touched, the opportunities you helped create, and the lessons you left behind.

Rest in peace, Stacey. You will be deeply missed.💛🦋

— The Aubrie Peña Legacy Foundation

08/11/2026

🌻11 Days of Aubrie l Day 11

Today is her birthday. Today she would have been 17.

I would have decorated the house with balloons, streamers, and a big birthday banner. I would have woken her up singing Las Mañanitas. I would have watched her blow out 17 candles, taken way too many pictures, and probably teased her about how grown she was getting.

I would do anything to have those moments.

To decorate the house for her.
To wake her up and sing to her one more time.
To light those 17 candles.
To take just one more picture of my girl.
To hear her laugh.
To hug her.

I would give anything for one more birthday with Aubrie.

Happy Heavenly 17th Birthday, Aubrie. 🎂🦋

We love you so much, and we miss you more than words could ever explain. I hope you’re celebrating up in the sky, surrounded by all the people we love and miss here on Earth. I hope they’re celebrating you big, just like we would have.

Today, we celebrate the years we were blessed to have you.
And we will keep celebrating you for the rest of our lives.

Happy birthday, my girl. Until we meet again. 🤍✨

08/10/2026

🌻11 Days of Aubrie | Day 10

In honor of Aubrie’s 17th Birthday, I’ll be sharing photos, memory, or story each day for the days leading up to her birthday.

For Day 10, I wanted to share all of her birthday pictures… birthdays 1–14. 🎂 Every year had a theme, a color, a new place, and its own little memories.

Aubrie once told me her top three birthdays were 5 (Frozen Extravaganza), 9 (Mermaid Pool Party), and one she never got to have but had dreamed about for years… her Sweet 15.

The first few years, I picked the themes based on whatever she was into at the time (Minnie Mouse, Team Umizoomi). But once she turned 3, she started telling me exactly what she wanted. 😂 And I was that mom who would do all the little detail things to make her day special.

But being an August baby meant her birthday celebrations always needed two things: AC or a pool. 😂 Aubrie and I share the same birth month, so whenever people talk about how hot August is, we just bat our eyes like,🤣 We’re used to it.

I truly loved planning her birthdays. Even if it meant there were years I didn’t really do much for my own birthday, because making hers special mattered more to me.

She also hated that because her birthday fell during summer, her school would always celebrate her birthday during the last week of school in May. I remember telling her, “Let’s turn that into a good thing. You get celebrated more than once a year!”❤️

As she got older, I had hoped that instead of big birthday parties, we’d eventually trade them in for trips and adventures together.

Aubrie was my birthday gift. 🎁 She was born just 9 days before my birthday and I will forever believe she was one of the greatest gifts I could have ever received.

And the cake… the cake was ALWAYS important. 😂 She hated chocolate cake. As a little girl, she would literally just eat the icing off the top. So of course, I made sure her cakes were exactly what she wanted.

For her heavenly 15th birthday, I made her a special cake too. 🎂🤍

Looking back, I feel like Michael and I raised a pretty modest kid. She didn’t need extravagant things or expensive gifts to be happy. She cared about the experience, the people, the little things, and making memories. And maybe that’s why these pictures mean so much to me.

They aren’t just birthday pictures. They are pieces of a life that I was so blessed to live alongside her. Sweat and tears I’m so glad that we made them all possible 🥹

Thank you to everyone who has been listening, reading, sharing, commenting, and helping me tell Aubrie’s story. I know these posts are a lot. They are heart-wrenching for me to write, but they are also incredibly beautiful because they allow me to introduce Aubrie to people who never got the chance to meet her.

Thank you for loving her through me. 🤍

14 birthdays. So many themes. So many memories. One incredible girl.

08/09/2026

🌻11 Days of Aubrie | Day 9

In honor of Aubrie’s 17th Birthday, I’ll be sharing photos, memory, or story each day for the days leading up to her birthday.

Today’s story comes mostly from my mom, Aubrie’s Momo, because she shared a very special part of Aubrie’s childhood, her faith and her love for church.

Aubrie was baptized as a baby at Emmanuel United Methodist Church. Her Momo, Denise, would always remind her of the important legacy of Emmanuel and tell her that her Great-Great-Grandma, “Santitos,” was one of the founders of the church. Aubrie took that history to hearts

She attended VBS, sang in the children’s choir, and sometimes assisted with the church’s special Christmas service as a reader. By the age of six, she had memorized The Lord’s Prayer.

But I think her favorite role at church was being an acolyte. She absolutely loved it. Whether she was carrying the cross, holding the Holy Bible, or lighting the altar candles, she knew she was doing it for Jesus’ honor and glory.

And that was Aubrie. She didn’t just participate she gave it her whole heart.

One Sunday, her Sunday school teacher asked the children to make Valentine’s Day cards for the elderly residents at a nursing home. Aubrie and her Momo made 150 cards together.❤️

She also loved participating in church skits and reading Scripture in front of the entire congregation. She wasn’t afraid to stand up in front of people and use her voice.

And then there was the song Jesus Loves the Little Children. When it came time to color the children for the song, Aubrie added her own touch pink and purple.💗💜 Because, of course, Aubrie was going to make it a little more Aubrie.

My mom says it best: “Aubrie loved church and the Lord.” And she did.

Looking back, I see how much of Aubrie’s heart was already there as a little girl. She loved serving. She loved helping others. She loved being involved. She loved making things special. And she loved Jesus.

I’m so thankful she had her Momo beside her, teaching her about the history of her church and helping her build a faith.

Aubrie’s life was short, but the love, kindness, faith and light she carried into the world will never be forgotten. 🤍🦋