Fund Created to Support Stringer Institute
April 16, 2010
For the past nine years, the name of Korey Stringer, the Minnesota Vikings All-Pro lineman who died from complications due to heatstroke at a 2001 training camp, was associated with tragedy. But with financial support from the National Football League and Gatorade, the new Korey Stringer Institute – focusing on heat-illness prevention - at UConn’s Neag School of Education will provide Stringer with a new legacy.
Stringer’s widow, Kelci Stringer, partnered with the NFL and Gatorade to open the Institute. “We hope we are around a long time,” the AP quoted her as saying in a story published April 20. “There’s constant research that comes out each day, and we want to continue to put out that information and be a resource for every athlete in any sport at any level.”
The University of Connecticut Foundation is supporting the effort to maintain the financial health of the Institute. “The long-term survival of the Korey Stringer Institute will be defined by how much support we receive,” says UConn kinesiology Professor Douglas J. Casa, the Institute’s lead researcher and one of the country’s pre-eminent experts in the field. “Also, in the short-term, the amount of services the Institute can provide will be determined by that support.”
Help the Institute by writing a check to the University of Connecticut Foundation, with the words ‘Korey Stringer Institute’ inscribed on the memo line, and mail it to the UConn Foundation, 2390 Alumni Drive, U-3206, Storrs, CT 06269 or go online to www.friends.uconn.edu/koreystringerinstitute.
For more information on the Korey Stringer Institute, visit ksi.uconn.edu.
