"Be Like Mike" Legacy

Kim McKelvey is organizing this fundraiser.

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We want to express our deepest gratitude to all who have offered your love and support, all of you who genuinely share our burden with the empathy and understanding for someone who has lost a child, and to those who have been lucky enough to know Mike and thus truly know and share the loss of Michael David McKelvey, our son, your brother, cousin, nephew, uncle, friend, or lover … as sweet a soul as ever walked the earth. Thank you, with all our heart, for your love and kindness.

We cannot bring Mike back, nor can we erase the grief we must all try to overcome. But if Mike were here, what would he say to us? It goes without saying, he would feel terrible about having caused us pain. But it wouldn’t change his desire to uplift others, because Mike had an uncanny ability to sense and be exactly what each one of us needed. We could imagine that he would continue to encourage us to find the beauty in even the simplest things around us, and to share that beauty with a smile and good words with the people in our lives. For Mike, it was about growth, joy, love, laughs, and the stoke. And so, we too, must look to carry his light forward.

Over the past 5-6 years, he built a life and a “family” in the Teton Mountains that was based on the strong bonds of respect, friendship, learning, leadership, love, and the enthusiasm for all the exhilarating activities that could be enjoyed there. Snowboarding was one of his many passions. He thought nothing of hiking three or four hours or camping overnight in sub-zero weather, in a tent, for a ten-minute shred. To hear him tell it, it was profound. It was spiritual.

Once the snow melted each spring, Mike made his trek back east to Pittsburgh by way of every National Park, hiking trail, and waterfall along the way. Bryce Canyon, Big Sur, Salton Sea, Arches, Muir Woods, Joshua Tree, Durango, Havasu, the Rio Grande, New Orleans, Summersville, Pisgah National Forest, Rickett’s Glen and all points in between. He exchanged the snowboard for a skim board and surfboard and spent hours upon hours in the surf at some of the most beautiful beaches in the world: Outer Banks North Carolina, Hawaii, Riviera Maya Mexico, Turks and Caicos, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico. If not on the water, he was in the water. Certified to scuba dive but quick to just throw on a snorkel and mask, and the GoPro, of course, to capture the beauty and diversity of the ocean. Mike was always driven to become one with the rhythm and beauty of the world around him.

It was especially important to Mike that all this beauty be safeguarded. He felt strongly that protected lands should stay protected for the sake of the environment and the enjoyment of future generations. He was against politicians attempting to revoke the protected status of some of our national parks which made them prime targets for mining and all the damage and pollution that would inevitably be left in its wake.

Mike genuinely loved the Earth. He encouraged us all to stop and marvel at her beauty, as he did. He cherished Mother Nature and advocated for the preservation of her precious resources. Those of you who traveled with Mike will remember that he never went out in nature without garbage bags in his pocket so that he could leave these beautiful places better than he found them. He believed that if we all took a few important steps, we could make a meaningful difference. He eliminated plastic from his life to the greatest extent possible, and convinced his family to do the same. He always had reusable grocery bags in the car for his shopping trips and refused plastic. When plastic could not be avoided, he recycled and made sure the plastic didn’t end up in the environment.

Over the last several months, we have had many people contact us to get involved in some way to pay tribute to Mike’s legacy. We have come up with two efforts that were near and dear to Mike that we’d like to pursue. Anyone wishing to contribute to this fund can specify which legacy they wish to support:

The first is to take action to clean up our world. We will be holding litter pick-up events throughout the summer and fall in and around Southwestern Pennsylvania. We plan to take the opportunity of these events to advocate and educate others on reducing the use of plastic and keeping it out of the environment. We held our first event at Seldom Seen Greenway in Pittsburgh on April 18 and hauled out twelve contractor bags of litter! We are looking to raise $8,000 to get Mike’s art printed on reusable grocery bags that are made of recycled plastic bottles. There is a large minimum quantity required for the custom art so donations are being solicited to support the effort. We plan to distribute the bags for free at our litter pick-up events and other locations to remind and encourage people to not only think about conservation but to act on it by refusing plastic at the grocery store. Bags will also be made available to any of Mike’s friends who want to hold their own clean-up events in other parts of the country.

Many friends have also expressed interest in the support of a scholarship for avalanche safety and rescue training. While his family may not have loved the risks involved in snowboarding in the back country, it was one of his many passions and we wish to support increasing safety and rescue education. For every thousand dollars we raise, we can provide a 4-day Level 1 avalanche safety and rescue training, as well as the equipment needed for a rescue to one back-country boarder.

100% of the proceeds will go directly to the above initiatives. Please help us brighten the future by spreading the compassion and wisdom Mike gave us all, to pay it forward for future generations. From the bottom of his family’s hearts, we thank you for the overwhelming responses and posts we have received over these past difficult weeks. Your love has provided a measure of comfort to us.

Thank you in advance to everyone who contributes/has contributed or spreads the word in honor of his legacy. Contact us if you want to get involved.