The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
That’s the ticket
Husky Ticket Project helping send hundreds of kids to games
They were born in 1990 — “The Dream Season.”
Growing up in North Haven and Orange, respectively, Kevin Korstep and Jeremy Longobardi knew only dominance from UConn basketball and certainly bled Husky blue. While still a senior at North Haven High, Korstep recalls storming the field after the UConn football team’s upset win over South Florida at Rentschler Field and jumping on quarterback Tyler Lorenzen’s back.
Kevin Solomon grew up in New Jersey, but his dad played football at UConn and you’d be hardpressed to find a bigger Husky fan.
The trio attended UConn and were at some of the big games in Husky history — the win over unbeaten Texas, the run to the 2014 national championship. But since graduating (Korstep and Longobardi in 2012, Solomon in 2014) and now living and working in New York City, they don’t have a chance to get to as many UConn basketball and football games as they’d like.
“So our thought was, a bunch of our friends and us, as well, would donate money and buy a season ticket package for the football team,” Longobardi recalled, “and instead of us going, [we’d] send someone in our place.”
Who would that be? The trio figured the best idea was to send underprivileged youths who might not otherwise have a chance to see Dan Hurley, Geno Auriemma or Randy Edsall stalking the sidelines in person.
And so, in the spring of 2018, the Husky Ticket Project was born. Soliciting donations from friends, family and, ultimately, hundreds of others through Twitter (@HuskyTicketProj) and other social media sites, Korstep, Longobardi and Solomon raised $6,000 last year and are up to $8,400 this year.
The Husky Ticket Project purchased about 400 tickets for football and about 100 for basketball games last year, sending kids from organizations like Nutmeg Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Hartford Youth Scholars, the Governor’s Prevention Partnership, Waterbury YMCA and the New Britain Police Ath
letic League.
“We’ve found good organizations, anything that’s a mentorship program, anything with afterschool services for young children,” said Korstep. “We think it’s a winwinwin for everybody.”
Indeed, while donations to the UConn Foundation or other organizations could be used in numerous ways, donors know exactly where their money is going with the Husky Ticket Project.
“They like knowing that this is going towards a ticket for a child in Connecticut to go to athletic events,” Korstep said. “They feel like they’re giving back to the program.”
The athletic department benefits from a new source of ticket purchases and fans in the seats, as well as a potential new crop of Husky fans who might fall in love with the program after going to a game or two.
“The ticket beneficiaries win because they’re able to go to an athletic event they maybe weren’t able to go to before,” Korstep added. “And the organization benefits, because it helps supplement some of the efforts that they’re already doing. It’s really worked well in the yearplus we’ve been doing it so far.”
The project seems to be growing, and the trio hopes to reach $10,000 in donations before the year is over. Last week, they were officially designated as a 501(c)(3) organization, which should help them to extend donations into
the corporate world.
Longobardi, a Notre DameWest Haven grad, Korstep and Solomon would also like to find youth organizations in the New Haven/Fairfield County area that could benefit from the project.
Longobardi and Korstep were roommates at UConn, as well as in New York City for a while. Longobardi, who earned a masters in accounting in 2013, currently works for the The Siegfried Group consulting firm as a CPA. Korstep, who earned an accounting degree at UConn, works in private equity at Willis Towers Watson, Mergers & Acquisitions Group. Solomon, who earned a masters in digital media and design in 2015, works in advertising for Verizon.
The trio still gets to an occasional weekend UConn football or basketball game, but they’re content knowing they’re playing a big part in helping kids from underprivileged backgrounds go to most of those games, instead.
When Korstep jumped on Lorenzen’s back after that win in 2007, he shouted out, “This is so unbelievable! I can’t wait for next year!”
He, Longobardi and Solomon are likely saying the same thing about the Husky Ticket Project.
Donation information and blogs (detailing each organizations’ visits to UConn games) can be found at huskyticketproject.wixsite.com/hustkyticketproject. The organization can also be reached by email at HuskyTicketProject@gmail.com, and donations can be made through www.paypal.met/HuskyTicketProject.