WATERFORD — Saturday’s funeral for 7-year-old Slade Baker was not about saying goodbye or putting his spirit to rest.

It was more a celebration of his life and the enormous impact he had on those around him.

Friends and familly spoke of “a little instigator” who was generous with hugs, but who ran from kisses and who carved a permanent place in the hearts of those who knew him.

“He would go around and greet people, shaking their hands and giving them hugs,” one woman said, referring to Slade’s Sunday morning exuberance at Community United Methodist Church in Waterford, where Saturday’s funeral took place. “We came to treasure those hugs. He stole our hearts.”

Resting is not something he is pictured doing in heaven. Whether playing baseball, football or dodgeball in the basement, Slade was described as a kid who always took life to the next level, who is now getting under the feet of a new coach, shoes untied, rarin’ to go.

“He is walking with Christ,” said the Rev. Russ Frees Jr., adding if Slade had the option to come back he would decline.

Others, numbering more than 1,200 at the wake Friday and in the hundreds at the service Saturday, penned their memories of Slade, who was pulled from the Fox River in Burlington earlier last week after he fell through the ice while sledding.

These are stories Slade’s parents, Matt and Marie Baker, said they will cherish and will share with Slade’s siblings, Damian and Shelby, as a way to keep Slade’s memory alive.

Those stories include one from a vacation bible school counselor who rues the day he got into a dunk tank with Slade and Damian around, another from a football coach who said Slade never wanted to come off the field, and one from a relative who said Slade taunted her under the mistletoe and wiped away her kiss when she caught him.

“When I asked him why he wiped it off he said, ‘Because I know you’ll chase me again tomorrow,’” she said.

Frees helped those in attendance pray for the strength they will need to move forward and encouraged everyone to “have a childlike faith like Slade’s” that is eager to believe. He admitted, though, Slade’s death was difficult for him to accept as well.

“I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t like it,” Frees said. “We are in grief. We know it. It hurts so bad.”

Frees also shared a laugh with the family, drawing a parallel between Slade’s tendency to be an instigator and the fact he was a Chicago Bears fan.

“What a great God we have,” Frees, a Green Bay Packers fan, said later in the service, and in Slade’s joking spirit, he pulled out a big sticker in the shape of a “G” and put it on Slade’s casket.