Live. Learn. Love. Forever Adventure.

After the loss of a close friend to an enlarged heart condition, sophomore Mike Morris and a group of friends decided to start Forever Adventure, Inc., a non-profit organization in honor and remembrance of their fallen friend.

The idea for the organization came about after the unexpected passing of John Hitz, a close friend and lead singer of Morris’ band, Forever and a Day.

“Prior to his passing, John and I would be working 24/7 on music and ideas to promote our band,” Morris said. “After he passed, I lost that motivation to be into music right now. I decided to channel my efforts and my talents into something that I think would honor John and promote to a larger audience, his legacy in a sense.”

The mission of Forever Adventure is to help less fortunate or disadvantaged young people to explore personal adventures through music and the arts. They hope to raise donations to start a memorial scholarship in Hitz’s memory, provide young people with the materials they need to pursue the arts and host learning seminars and workshops.

“Our goal with Forever Adventure, essentially, is to assist as many people as possible with their own personal goals regarding music and the arts … We hope we can provide many opportunities for the creative and most certainly inspire people along the way, much like John did for us,” said Sarah Brockett, co-creator of Forever Adventure, Inc.

While the organization is less than a month old, it is already planning on unique activities to help aid young people pursue their goals in the arts.

Hitz’s father, who was also interested in photography like John was, agreed to dedicate his time to developing a workshop for young people interested in photography.

It is also planning on donating and raffling adventure kits, backpacks with supplies like digital cameras, paintbrushes and flashlights, to young people looking to explore the arts in all of its different forms.

“So many people are very willing to dedicate their time, so we just kind of need to tighten these things down,” Morris said. “The overwhelming support that we have gotten so far from a couple of posts on Facebook and YouTube videos has been overwhelming … we hope it continues down this line.”

Hitz and his desire to make life an adventure inspired the name “Forever Adventure.”

Hitz was born with a serious heart condition, leaving a portion of his heart three times too large, which led to the complications that caused his passing.

“John had a profound way of living,” Morris said. “His philosophy on life was incredible … he knew that every second he had was a gift and that he had to make every second an adventure … his whole idealism was treat everything as an adventure.”

Forever Adventure is currently in the process of making T-shirts, wristbands and buttons to help raise donations for their projects.

“Getting the word out is the biggest thing,” Morris said. “With that will come the funds and then from there we can establish our programs and more specific direction with what we want to do with our donated goods, adventure kits and seminars for photography or art.”

The organization has put together a series of YouTube videos of rough music recordings Hitz performed with his band to showcase what he was doing musically and photographically.

Press kits for the organization include a standardized letter and a tribute DVD to Hitz, featuring a song he performed with his band.

“We hope this reaches some people and touches them in a way that they would be so inclined to help. Anything is helpful. Monetary donations, talent or just time,” Morris said.

People interested in making a donation to Forever Adventure, Inc. can make donations to the Forever Adventure account at any Huntington Bank, or e-mail Forever Adventure at [email protected].