Keira Hornyak is trying to chomp her way into Tim Tebow’s heart. She’s asking him to a military ball in the hope of securing him as an endorsement for her upcoming cystic fibrosis fundraiser.
Hornyak, a 19-year-old UF political science freshman, made a YouTube video slideshow to share her message. The video includes pictures of Hornyak posing in iconic campus locations with signs asking Tebow to be her date.
“The ball is about celebrating what the Army stands for, and I want to share that with Tebow,” she said.
Hornyak said she has admired Tebow for a long time and wanted a unique reason to gain his attention for her fundraiser. The Cystic Fibrosis Climb, benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, is planned for Fall 2014.
The fundraiser will be a fitness event in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
It is designed to be a challenging course representing climbing to new heights in finding the cure.
Hornyak’s inspiration for creating the event lies in her friend Chase Honeycutt, a 19-year-old Santa Fe College business sophomore who has cystic fibrosis.
She said he works harder than a lot of people she knows and changed her view on life.
“If he can get up and do everything he does in a normal day, then I have no excuse to not do what I am supposed to be doing,” Hornyak said.
Honeycutt said this fundraiser has great potential to raise both awareness and money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
He said he also hopes to see the North Central Florida chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation benefit from their work.
“I think it is a great opportunity for the university and the CF foundation, and I just really hope it works out,” Honeycutt said.
Although he may not get the chance to take Tebow out on a date like Hornyak, Honeycutt praised her efforts to gain his support in the cause.
“It takes a lot of courage to do something like that,” he said. “I think it is a great idea to get him involved.”
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 4/2/2014 under the headline "Woman uses YouTube to ask Tebow to military ball for charity"]
Keira Hornyak poses with some of the signs she used to ask Tim Tebow to the UF Military Ball. Hornyak wants Tebow to help endorse a cystic fibrosis fundraiser.
