Myra Kraft Legacy Fund Recipients Honored
BOSTON (CBS) - Myra Kraft, who died of cancer three years ago, touched people around the world with her generosity. On Wednesday night, her family recognized the recipients of the Myra Kraft Legacy Fund. Myra's husband, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, says it's further proof her spirit is very much alive.
Even now, Robert Kraft marvels at the generosity of people who gave to a fund in his late wife's memory. Some of them gathered at his home to meet the scholarship recipients and remember a woman passionate about giving.
"When she heard about people who were in need when she was six, seven years old, she went around her neighborhood with a little tin can collecting money for them," Robert Kraft said. "It was just in her genetic makeup."
Kraft says once Myra identified someone in need, there was no stopping her. "She was petite and, to me, very beautiful and a lady," Kraft said. "But she knew how to get her way and she was good and she had a heart of gold."
Just donating money was not enough for Myra. "She was always in there doing the grunt work," Kraft said. "People who were doing the right thing and needed help. That was always her outreach."
That is why the Myra Kraft Legacy Fund awards money to people who volunteer, need help and give back. Like 24-year-old Hamza Abdul who was able to finish school because of the scholarship.
"At difficult times, it helped me out," he said. "It meant more to me than just the money."
Hamza and his 14 siblings fled Somalia in 1994. With a degree from UMass Boston, he just became the first in his family to graduate college.
"Your generosity has put me in a position to give someone else a break in life. Just like you did for me. Thank you so much."
Kraft knows that would have made his late wife proud.
"She touched a lot of people and I hope she's smiling at us tonight," Kraft said.
Myra Kraft was the first board chair for the Boys and Girls Club of Boston, and the club helps choose the award winners. The Kraft family says Myra's legacy is alive in the roughly one million dollars they now give out in her name every year.
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