Teens, community honor friend Brandon Curtis

SPRINGVILLE — Spurred by teenage activism and a community in mourning, city leaders from both Springville and Mapleton are honoring a high school football player who died from injuries in a Jeep rollover last month in the school parking lot following a gridiron practice.

Three other students were injured.

Both cities, in an unprecedented joint meeting last week, proclaimed Saturday, Aug. 28, as "Brandon Curtis #30 Make a Difference Day." Curtis, 18, who wore jersey No. 30, died July 28, a day after the rollover. A Mormon fireside honoring Curtis, who friends say exemplified helping others and was an organ donor, is scheduled for Sunday at the Springville Stake Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 600 S. 350 East.

"The fireside is for Springville and Mapleton young men and young women," LDS Stake President Rod Oldroyd said. Springville High School football coach Scott Mitchell is expected to speak.

The community responded to the accident with mourners leaving messages of love in chalk on the pavement where the accident occurred.

A service project, scheduled for Saturday, will push for more organ donors and work to raise cash for a scholarship in Curtis' name.

Mapleton resident David Nemelka was an apparent driving force behind the proclamation, but he also credits teenage friends of Curtis who wanted to honor him.

Nemelka's Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation, which helps to officially register organ donors, teamed up with the Utah Organ Donor Coalition and Closer Than Brothers, a group of young men and a couple of girls who were friends with Curtis, to organize the fundraiser.

"It's a selfless gift of love," Nemelka said. He is hoping it will set records, both with the Guinness Book of World Records and the state of Utah.

Curtis donated seven major organs. Together with his eyes and other soft tissue, Curtis' donation helped about 50 people, Nemelka said.

The day after Curtis died, the teenagers came to Nemelka's home and asked what they could do to honor him. Together, they hammered out a plan to spread good in his name throughout the community, Nemelka said.