As the number grew on Janet Lowry’s GoFundMe page, the scope of her life came into focus just as it was ending.
Hundreds turned to thousands until more than 400 donations totaled a little under $100,000 — all in support of Janet and her husband, Columbine football coach Andy Lowry, as she neared the final days of a seven-year battle with cancer, much of which had been fought in private.
“I sure wish in my lifetime that I could pay it forward like these people have paid it to me,” longtime friend Monica Kellogg recalled Janet telling her.
In reality, the community was paying it back to her.
Janet died Nov. 15 at age 54. It marked the passing of Columbine football’s matriarch and a woman whose impact resonated over decades throughout Jefferson County.
She was originally diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. After a double mastectomy, two years later she found out cancer had spread to her bones. Over the last 18 months, her fight intensified as she went through intravenous chemotherapy and endured multiple hospital stays. Finally, on July 15 this year — her birthday — doctors told Janet she had two months to live.
She entered home hospice care and ended up living double the doctors’ projections in the greatest gift the Lowry family could’ve received at the end of her life: More time.
“It was a great four months, and it was some of the happiest I’ve seen her in years,” Andy Lowry said. “We embraced it. We made a deal in July that we were going to live, and not just survive. And that’s what we did.”
The Lowrys took a couple of trips to Glenwood Springs, their longtime family vacation spot. Janet planned a getaway with family and friends to Blackhawk on the first weekend of October to celebrate daughter Katlyn’s 21st birthday. And in the Rebels’ regular-season finale on Nov. 1 at Jeffco Stadium, Columbine and Chatfield played for Janet, with a pregame ceremony honoring her. Both teams and fan sections wore teal to recognize her battle against metastatic cancer.
Columbine Rebels head coach Andy Lowry talks with QB Brennan Goodwin (4) before sending him back into the huddle in the first half of the game against the Arvada West Wildcats at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood, Colorado Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
“Three weeks ago was about as great of a moment as we could’ve asked for her, in terms of timing for her, for our community and for our schools,” Columbine athletic director and assistant football coach Derek Holliday said. “It was bigger than football.”
As former Pomona boss and current Legacy head coach Jay Madden said, “The Lowrys are Columbine.”
The outreach to the family in Janet’s waning days showed just how true Madden’s statement is.
Former player Dusty Hoffschneider, who starred on Columbine’s first two state title teams in 1999 and 2000, donated $25,000 to the GoFundMe fundraiser through the business that he and his sisters own. All told, 426 donations were made from near and far.
“Coach Lowry and Janet, if you needed something, they’d do it for you,” Hoffschneider said. “That’s why so many people have donated.”
Janet, a 1988 Wheat Ridge alum who came from a family of coaches and teachers, had a magnetic personality. She spent time as Columbine’s cheerleading coach, worked as a caterer and event planner, and was a family and consumer science teacher at Chatfield for seven years. Her bubbly, selfless persona was underscored by an artsy creative side, an infectious laugh and a sharp wit.
It wasn’t uncommon during her time at Chatfield for her to vomit in the morning because of chemotherapy, only to show up in class shortly after with energy and verve. She made learning fun, like when she started the Bob Ross Art Club for kids to hang out, create and watch videos of the famous instructional painter. Her classroom was the place to visit in her off-hours if you needed a laugh or a shoulder to cry on.
Janet Lowry, center, dresses up for a Wish Week day alongside fellow Chargers teachers Rhonda Gunkel, left, and Sidne Allen, right, on Feb. 3, 2020, at Chatfield High School in Littleton, Colo. (Courtesy of Sidne Allen)
“Anyone in need knew they could come to her and she would take care of people,” explained Sidne Allen, who co-taught with Janet for five years at Chatfield. “She would keep little notes of what people liked, what their favorites were. If you liked Reeses, every couple of weeks there would be some peanut butter cups on your desk, anonymously. If a staff member had something difficult going on, she would make a gift basket for their family.”
She was just as dedicated as a friend, aunt and mom to Katlyn and her son, Thomas. She made eight-foot-tall birthday cards. She gifted friends and family mini-scrapbooks. She “could make anyone feel like the Queen of England,” Kellogg said.
It was a constant barrage of small, thoughtful gestures that made her so well-loved.
“She always left people so much better than she found them,” said Maya Alvarez, one of Janet’s former students.
All of those qualities made her a mainstay in the Columbine football program.
Andy initially met Janet at a Lakewood vs. Chatfield basketball game when Andy was the Tigers’ football coach in the early 1990s. He worked up the courage to ask her out about a month later when he saw her at a track meet. That was the seed of what became a high school sports power couple, as the Lowrys married in the summer of 1995.
Janet was Andy’s pillar as a sort of team mom over his 31 years at Columbine. Her influence and leadership helped the Littleton community heal following the 1999 shooting at the school. And Andy credits her for assisting him in building the Rebels into a dynasty with six state titles, the most recent of which came last fall when Janet was an honorary captain at the championship game where Columbine upset Cherry Creek at Canvas Stadium.
Janet Lowry poses for a photo with her son, Thomas Lowry, after Janet was an honorary captain before Columbine’s win over Cherry Creek in the Class 5A state championship game on Dec. 2, 2023, at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colo. (Courtesy of Monica Kellogg)
If not for Janet’s encouragement earlier this year, Andy was ready to walk away from coaching altogether.
“After she went into hospice, I thought there was no way I could teach or coach,” he said. “I told (Columbine defensive coordinator) Tom (Tonelli) that I wasn’t going to be able to coach this year. But I came back home, and on the last day of summer weights, God just got me up out of bed. I walked into the weight room, saw all my guys, hugged them.
“That weekend, Janet and Katlyn were the reason I decided to continue coaching. Katlyn said, ‘Dad, you need to do it.’ Janet agreed.”
In the wake of Janet’s death, the Rebels adopted a “Lowry Strong” mantra for the playoffs and adorned their blue helmets with teal stickers with Janet’s initials.
Andy, who hasn’t missed a game or practice this season, came late to practice last Friday to be with the team a few hours after Janet passed away. The next day a moment of silence was held for Janet before Columbine’s 42-21 win over Cherokee Trail in the Rebels’ playoff opener.
“The mindset at Columbine, because of the values that Andy and Janet have, has always been what it is this week,” Tonelli said. “And that is that life is more than football. We’re playing this game to teach us life lessons. We’re playing this game because it teaches us about relationships and commitment to those relationships. So this isn’t some gigantic epiphany that somebody had this week. All it is, is a recommitment to the foundation that the Lowrys already built.”
That foundation will extend to the other sideline in Saturday’s Class 5A quarterfinals at noon at Jeffco Stadium, where Valor Christian will also wear helmet stickers honoring Janet.
Eagles head coach Bret McGatlin, a Columbine assistant coach and teacher for four years straight out of college, calls Andy his mentor. And he, like countless others, has never forgotten how Janet and Andy reached out their hands in his greatest time of need when his daughter required open heart surgery at six days old.
“I felt so much love from the Lowrys and the Columbine community during that time, it makes me emotional now thinking about it,” McGatlin said. “That’s just who they are. They showed up to the hospital, they took care of us even though I wasn’t even teaching or coaching there anymore at that time. They had dinners ready for us, surely coordinated by Janet. We still have the football signed by the whole team.
“They’re the most selfless family and people I’ve ever met. They’d give the shirt off their back to anybody, and that’s why people love them. Football is what Andy does, but that’s not who he is, and that’s how Janet was, too. Together, they used the sport of football to capture the hearts of so many.”
In that way, even though Janet is gone, what she paid forward over her 54 years lives on.
“There’s a belief that you die twice,” Andy said. “One when you physically die, and the other time is when people stop mentioning your name. Janet’s going to leave a legacy for years and years with all of us who knew her, and with the Jeffco community. Hopefully, she doesn’t die that second time, for a long time.”
The Lowry family — Andy, Janet and kids Thomas and Katlyn — pose with the trophy after Columbine won the Class 5A state championship over Mullen on Dec. 2, 2006, at the Broncos stadium in Denver. (Courtesy of Monica Kellogg)
Services for Janet Lowry will be held on Saturday, Nov. 30, at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church (1985 Miller St.) followed by a reception at The Barn at Raccoon Creek (7301 W. Bowles Ave.) starting around noon.