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Travis Roy
August 10, 2021
Travis Roy Foundation, begun by Maine hockey star 25 years ago, plans to end operation
By Staff
The Travis Roy Foundation, a national nonprofit created by the Augusta native and North Yarmouth Academy hockey star who died last fall, will permanently wind down its work early next year.
The foundation will end its fundraising sometime after April 2022 in accordance with Roy’s wishes, according to a news release Friday.
He had requested that the foundation cease operation following his death, which occurred Oct. 29, 2020, after complications from surgery. Roy was 45.
In 1995, he damaged his spinal cord in a fall during the opening seconds of his first game as a freshman hockey player at Boston University. He was left paralyzed from the neck down. While he used a wheelchair for the rest of his life, Roy became a leading advocate, author and fundraiser for spinal cord injury treatment and research.
In 1996, Roy launched the foundation, which grew to become the largest spinal cord injury charity program of its kind in the country, the release said. The foundation has raised over $20 million for research and for grants to thousands of individuals and their families dealing with paralysis after a spinal cord injury, and awarded more than $5.6 million in grants toward finding a cure.
The NYA Travis Roy Ice Arena, in Yarmouth, was named in his honor in 1998, and Roy was inducted into the NYA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019.
Travis Roy Foundation trustees are currently in discussions with other nonprofits to establish programs that will continue Roy’s mission for years to come, according to the release. The Boston-based foundation is also partnering with the Boston Red Sox on the 20th and final Travis Roy Foundation WIFFLE Ball Tournament in Vermont, after which two of the competing teams will earn a chance to play at Fenway Park.
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