This Custom Lego Mural Honors the Late Sam Berns

The Lego mural. Photo provided

Sam Berns—a Foxborough High School student who succumbed to the rapid aging disease Progeria in 2014—was a fixture in the Boston sports world. Now, two years after his passing, the community he loved so much is keeping his legacy alive.

Berns, who told his story in the HBO documentary Life According to Sam and in a TEDx talk viewed more than a billion times, was a huge Boston sports fan, and even struck up a friendship with Robert Kraft. As a way of honoring that devotion, Lego created a custom-built mural depicting all four Boston teams’ logos before Berns’ death, but he passed away before he could receive the gift.

The mural, however, will not go to waste. The Progeria Research Foundation (PRF), an organization founded by Berns’ parents, will auction the piece off at its biennial fundraiser gala, to be held April 9. The Lego creation will come in a frame signed by Kraft, Tom Brady, David Ortiz, Zdeno Chara, and Isaiah Thomas, among other Boston sports figures. Proceeds from its sale will benefit PRF.

Entry to the gala isn’t cheap—individual tickets start at $225—and you can bet the mural won’t be either, but whoever leaves with it will have a one-of-a-kind piece of sports history, and will have made a lasting contribution to Progeria research.

Tickets start at $225, 4/9, 6 p.m. Renaissance Waterfront Hotel, 606 Congress St., Boston. For more information, visit progeriaresearch.org.