Just one day after celebrating Baltimore?s return to the Super Bowl in 2001, Leslie Moore lost his battle with scleroderma.
The son of Baltimore Colt great Lenny Moore, Leslie?s life was cut short at 43, following a nine-year battle with the disease that caused his skin and organs to harden and shut down. In Leslie?s memory, his father started the Leslie Moore Scholarship Foundation.
Six years later, Lenny Moore, 73, continues to use this organization to give underprivileged youth in the Baltimore area the chance to do what his son loved best: Learn.
“We can work with them and help them,” Moore said. “I want to do whatever it is that I can do to help bring [youth] up, and out of this down time in their lives.”
Administered in part by the Baltimore Community Foundation, the scholarship fund gives out five $2,500 grants to local students each year. The awards are available only to students who have overcome personal challenges or are from an “at-risk” family. This spring, the foundation will see its first graduating class of scholarship recipients.
“You don?t have to be at the top of the class,” said Stacey Jackson, a local volunteer with the foundation. “Our scholars just have to have a proven desire to chase their education or vocation.”
Still volunteering in the community, Moore is a commissioner with the Maryland Boxing Commission, works with Juvenile Services for the state and is active with the Ed Block Foundation. At the end of the day, though, his focus and his heart always goes back to the group that bears his son?s name.
“I am excited because number one, the kids that are in college are doing well, every one of them,” Moore said. “They hung in there, and these new five students coming in; we welcome them with open arms.”
If you go
» What: Sixth Annual Leslie Moore Scholarship Foundation Dinner and Silent Auction
» Where: Martin?s West in Baltimore
» When: May 7
For more information on the foundation or to purchase tickets for this year?s dinner and silent auction, contact Cindy Ortman at 410-793-3905 ext. 2195 or Robbie Davis at 410-560-3200.
