W HEN MATTHEW CONOVER’S LIFE was cut short by cancer at the age of 12, his parents, Noelle and David, wanted to ensure he would be remembered in a way that also would serve to give back to the community that cared for them and other family members during their son’s illness. Noelle remembers Matt as an active boy. He was involved in sports, played percussion in his school band and loved learning how things worked. She describes him as “everyone’s friend,” a child who loved to help people. While dressing for basketball practice on a school day in October 2001, Matthew found a lump under his arm as he was putting on his jersey, and told his mother. By the end of the month, Matt had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. “It was like a plane had fallen out of the sky and hit our house,” says Noelle. Matt stayed at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh for nine months. During that period, Noelle says, friends and neighbors from the Mt. Lebanon community where they live rallied around her family with fundraisers, meal preparations and care for Matt’s three siblings. “Ultimately you think your child will survive to tell their story,” she says, “but on July 5, 2002, Matt passed away in our arms in the ICU. We were devastated.” In the months following, Noelle and David surprised themselves in their determination to channel their grief into action that would improve life prospects for others. By the end of that year, the Matthew Conover Memorial Scholarship Fund had been established at The Pittsburgh Foundation from donations received during Matt’s illness. “For the last 15 years, we’ve been giving back and trying to do for people in the community what they did for us when Matt was sick, and even after he passed,” Noelle says. “When you give back, you feel better.” A few years later, the family created the Matthew Conover Memorial Fund, separate from the scholarship. The fund’s mission has been to transfer some of Matt’s greatest loves into a positive experience for others like him facing serious illness. PHILANTHROPY HELPS GRIEVING FAMILY HEAL Noelle Conover in Matt’s Maker Space at Howe Elementary School in Mt. Lebanon. She and her husband, David, founded the nonprofit that provides special learning centers in Mt. Lebanon schools in honor of their son. The spaces allow students to explore science, technology, engineering, arts and math concepts through hands-on learning. 17 SPACES S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 1 8