More than $15000 raised for memorial fund through sale of Sarah Burke stickers
In an effort to raise money for a fund set up for late six-time Winter X Games champion Sarah Burke, California’s professional freeskier Michelle Parker and her team has raised over $15,000 through the sale of stickers.
More than 3000 stickers have already been mailed to over 16 different countries around the globe as people are eagerly clinching the opportunity to make what little contribution they can to help Burke’s family.
Each sticker is being sold for $5.00, with 47 cents being the price of the envelope and stamp. The remaining $4.53 will be donated to the fund that has been set up by Burke’s agent Michael Spencer.
The purpose of the fund is to meet the medical costs accrued during Burke’s time at the University of Utah hospital where she had been admitted following her accident on January 10 earlier this year. Any addition fund raised will be spent to establish a
foundation to honour the Canadian freeskier.
The 28-year-old Ontario-based Burke suffered critical injuries after bumping her head on the Park City Mountain Resort Eagle superpipe during a private training session in Park City, Utah. She soon went into a cardiac arrest and was air-lifted to the University
of Utah Hospital. The doctors performed neurosurgery to mend a tear in her vertebral artery, but to no avail. After fighting her injuries for nine days, she eventually succumbed to them on January 19.
Her death triggered a wave of melancholy across the entire action sports community, who regarded her highly for her numerous accomplishments in freeskiing competitions, as well as the many contributions that she had made for the sport outside of it. One
of these accomplishments included a successful campaign to get ski slopestyle and half-pipe included in the Winter Olympics line-up.
Burke had inspired many female skiers and Parker was one of them. After learning about her death, the Lake Tahoe-based skier decided to convert her emotions into a passion for helping the late freeskier’s family in any way she could. That is when she came
up with the idea to sell “Believe in Sarah” and “Remember Sarah” stickers. Canada’s Kaya Turski came up with the design and Parker surrounded herself with a group of friends to make the idea materialise.
“Sarah was my hero growing up. Her poster hung on my wall and showed me that I could potentially be a female professional skier some day. I can't think of a better role model than her. Her humble smile, passion, and poise were attributes that I one day hoped
to acquire. By initiating this fundraiser, I wanted to give back to Sarah a little bit of what she gave to all of us. It's incredible to see how many people Sarah has touched,” said Parker.
Shreddy Times played their role in promoting the new stickers by setting up an online store where people from all over the world can place an order, while Sticker Pack donated all of the stickers for the fundraiser generously.
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