From: WCVB – ABC Boston
“It’s about compassion, which Corey was all about,” said Corey A. Griffin, an uncle. “It’s about helping other people.”
The day before he died in a tragic accident on Nantucket last summer, the 27-year-old raised $100,000 for his Boston College friend Pete Frates’ ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
“He couldn’t have gone out in a bigger better way for his really good friend,” said his sister Casey Griffin. “Everything about Corey was unique. He had the biggest personality, so full of life.”
In that same spirit, Griffin’s family and friends are preparing to honor him by donating the proceeds of this year’s winter ball to the Corey C. Griffin Charitable Foundation.
“(It was) established to celebrate what was uniquely Corey,” said Griffin’s uncle.
“Helping sick kids through Children’s Hospital, trauma research, and scholarships for inner-city Catholic kids.”
The response has been overwhelming. At this point more than 800 people will fill the Copley Plaza ball room Saturday night.
“We’ve raised over a half-million dollars,” said Michael Kapos, Griffin’s friend and event co-founder. “To put that in perspective, we never really raised more than $125,000 in a year.”
Casey Griffin said despite the enduring pain of her family’s loss, her brother would want his huge circle of friends and family to celebrate his life not mourn his untimely death.
“He was the life of the party,” she said. “He would want this thing to be the biggest thing Boston has ever seen. He lived more in 27 years than most people live in a lifetime. That’s how we’re going to honor him from here on out. Go big. Go big or go home.”
