You all — the outpouring of love and support for the Marco Shemwell Foundation and for our family has been so overwhelming and inspiring.
After the tragedy, we immediately formed a personal relationship with the UK football team and staff. Marco’s accident happened as the family was leaving a UK football game, and they were so sweet and proactive about visiting Marco and Maximo in the hospital. Busloads of the UK football team players came to the church visitation and all of the players and coaches were named as honorary pallbearers at the funeral.
As you may know, this season has been a truly historical and significant season for the UK football team — the first time they’ve had 10 wins in a season since 1977.
In honor of Marco, UK athletics invited the family to be their guest in Orlando, Florida for the 2019 Citrus Bowl, and we were all able to spend some quality time with the team. Maximo was out-of-this-world delighted.
What's even better is that the Citrus Bowl sponsor VRBO partnered with the Boys and Girls Club of America and Fun Spot America, which is an amazing amusement park. Players from both UK and Penn State spent the morning at Fun Spot America with kids from the local neighborhoods around the Citrus Bowl stadium. We were also able to go! We had so much fun spending time with the kids and the players and having fun at the park that day.
We know Marco would have had such an amazing time at the Citrus Bowl. It felt so important to find this shared joy with the players and coaches who had become family after experiencing Marco’s loss with us.