COLUMBUS – Crew Soccer Foundation President and Crew President & General Manager Mark McCullers announced that in its first year, the Crew Soccer Foundation’s Kirk Urso Memorial Fund raised $100,000 to develop and support youth heart health research and programming. The funds raised are a core focus of the foundation and a way to honor the late Crew midfielder Kirk Urso, who unexpectedly passed away at the age of 22 from a congenital heart defect. This accomplishment sets a record for funds raised for a single Foundation initiative within in a calendar year and delivers on a pledge made the day the Urso Fund was created two months after his passing in October of 2012.
THE CREW SOCCER FOUNDATION’S KIRK URSO MEMORIAL FUND
“Kirk Urso is and always will be a member of the Crew family,” said Crew Soccer Foundation President and Crew President & General Manager Mark McCullers. “Delivering on our promise to raise $100,000 for the Crew Soccer Foundation’s Kirk Urso Memorial Fund within the first year is a way to ensure his enduring legacy through enhancing the lives of youth and families coping with congenital heart defects.”
Individual and corporate supporters made contributions and provided support through numerous events, including the Kirk Urso Memorial Match against the University of North Carolina – Urso’s alma mater – and the Crew Soccer Foundation Golf Classic, as well as many others. In partnership with The Children’s Heart Foundation, the Urso Fund will sponsor an annual grant focused on the prevention, diagnosis and/or treatment of cardiac heart defects and sudden cardiac death in youth.
The announcement regarding the Urso Fund came in conjunction with the Crew’s annual team awards, held this year at Via Vecchery Winery in the Brewery District during “An Evening of Black & Gold.”
