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Provo man who died hiking remembered for his charity work with children

Posted at 10:22 PM, Jul 04, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-05 08:41:24-04

PROVO, Utah - Friends and co-workers are remembering a Provo man who died while hiking at Havasupai Falls in Arizona last weekend.

31-year old Michael Sproul worked at Vivint Gives Back, and his colleagues said he changed the lives of kids in the community and around the world.

His job: "Connect with kids that didn't really connect with other people," said Holly Mero-Bench, one of Sproul's best friends and his co-worker.

For the past three years, Sproul's helped kids with intellectual disabilities, working on projects that took him to schools in the community and to other countries.

"From organizing humanitarian trips around the world, to installing sensory rooms in homes and classrooms," Mero-Bench explained.

The 75 sensory rooms he installed were used for therapy for kids with special needs, she said.

More recently, Sproul organized a Make-A-Wish Utah event in Provo.

Vivint Gives Back threw a ball for a Payson teen, to announce that Make-A-Wish Utah was granting her dream to go to Disney World. The ball included the girl's favorite things: Princesses and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Fox 13 was at the event on May 31, and filmed the evening's festivities.

On July 1, Sproul died while hiking back from Havasupai Falls with his wife, Meg Monk Sproul, and another family member.

"Hiking Havasupai was something that he had always wanted to do," Mero-Bench said.

She said Sproul loved adventure and the outdoors, and said he was experienced and well-prepared for the trip.

Sproul was not far from his two-year wedding anniversary, Mero-Bench said.

She said Sproul wanted to make an impact, and he wanted the kids he worked with to know how much they were loved.

"He wanted to make the world a better place," she said. "He went out and did that, and he attacked everything that he did with a passion."

The Michael Sproul Memorial Fund has been set up to help Sproul's wife and his family.