The Orlando Sports Foundation, Inc. ( OSF), founded in May 2008, is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to raising funding and awareness for cancer research. The foundation works with national and local stakeholders to join our mission to “bring teams together to find a cure for cancer.” The Orlando Sports Foundation focuses on research that will solve cancer. Our goal is not to manage cancer. Our goal is to find a cure for cancer.

OSF hosts many fundraising events throughout the year, benefiting a short list of cancer and cancer research causes. One such event, ESPN Events Cure Bowl, which is an NCAA college football bowl, has helped to put Orlando at the center of some of the world’s most significant advancements in cancer science. Since 2015, the bowl has raised a collective $3.88 million. Over $1 million of the funds raised have gone to Dr. Annette Khaled, professor at the UCF College of Medicine’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences and head of the medical school’s cancer research division.

With the combined support of residents, loyal sports fans, and other partners, the OSF is further dedicated and committed to serving the challenges of cancer awareness and elimination, invigorating the athletic community and supporting youth organizations with standards of benevolence, integrity, and moral excellence.

The idea of the Orlando Sports Foundation started over a decade ago between a group of business leaders and philanthropists who wanted to bring a new college football post-season bowl game to Orlando while making it different by tying it directly to a charitable cause.

Those initial supporters were the founding Board of Directors and Advisory Board members: Dave Almstead, Megan Dowdy, Alan Fidelo, Mike Foristall, Alan Gooch, Joe Hornstein, Jeff Lagos, George Lamelza, Joe Mckinney, Mack Mclaughlin, Alan Morrison, and Scott Rose.

As this idea was forming, Laura Goldstein – a robust and early advocate of the game – was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer. This unfortunate event inspired the initial Board of Directors to choose breast cancer research toward finding a cure as its charitable funding focus.

The board members knew that each college bowl game donates to a charity. However, most fans are unaware of which charitable causes are being supported. To separate this bowl from the rest, they wanted to give the public a chance to support the game and a significant cause. To do this, it was decided the cause would permanently be incorporated into the game title, and the OSF was born.

Unfortunately, Laura Goldstein will not be able to experience the bowl game she helped inspire. She lost her long and hard-fought battle with breast cancer on April 20, 2011. Another devastating loss hit close to home when OSF Board CFO Sandi Breitenstein died on March 24, 2015, from stage IV liver cancer. Laura, Sandi, and others who will lose their battle against cancer today, tomorrow, and in the coming days to continue to motivate OSF to continue its mission.