A memorial fund is being established to remember a Vernon volleyball player killed in a car accident last weekend.
The family of Jordan Young has requested people make a donation to the Jordan Young Memorial Award, being established at Young’s school, UBC Okanagan, in lieu of sending the family flowers.
Young, 18, a first-year power hitter with the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association-champion UBC Okanagan Heat, was killed when his car went off Commonage Road and struck a power pole at around 2:30 a.m. March 5.
Young was extracted from the car with the Jaws of Life and was taken to Vernon Jubilee Hospital in serious condition. He was transferred to Kelowna General Hospital where he died.
The accident happened three days before Young and his Heat teammates were scheduled to leave for the Canadian championship tournament in Sherbrooke, Que.
“The award will provide an opportunity for friends and family of Jordan, if they were anticipating sending flowers, to consider making a donation in his name,” said Rob Johnson, director of athletics and recreation at UBCO.
“The family decided this would be a more appropriate way to remember him.”
Young was in his freshman year at UBCO after being recruited from Vernon’s Clarence Fulton Secondary.
The team’s website called Young “a very special character with a promising future both academically and in volleyball. Jordan was a wonderful young man who enjoyed life, loved his family and friends and was especially proud to be a Heat volleyball player.”
A celebration of Young’s life will be held Monday at 2 p.m. at Vernon Alliance Church (2601-43rd Avenue).
Flowers and a volleyball have been left at a makeshift memorial at the crash site on Commonage Road.
Anybody wishing to make a donation to the Jordan Young Memorial Award can do so care of Sharon De Vries, the University of British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, B.C. V1V 1V7, or call De Vries at 250-807-8433.
Information on the award will also be available at the funeral.
Fulton’s senior girls basketball team, coached by Young’s uncle, Jim Inglis, and the Fulton Maroons senior boys are wearing black ribbons on their uniforms in memory of Young at this week’s B.C. AA basketball championships in Kamloops.
