Foundation named for Baltimore native Yeardley Love returns to her hometown

A foundation named for Baltimore native killed by an ex-boyfriend at the University of Virginia is returning to her hometown.

The One Love Foundation, named for former University of Virginia lacrosse player Yeardley Love, is moving from New York, WJZ reported.

Love was a 22-year-old college student when she was killed by her ex-boyfriend, George Huguely, in 2010.

Sharon Love, Yeardley’s mother, said there is a significance to the foundation returning to Baltimore.

The One Love Foundation is dedicated to ending relationship abuse and now the foundation is doing that work at its new headquarters in Timonium.

“Baltimore is my hometown. Baltimore was Yeardley’s hometown,” Sharon Love said. “Really, we got our start here.”

In 2010, Huguely broke into Love’s room and left her with multiple external injuries and a fatal head injury.

He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 23 years in prison. Now 36, Huguely is being held in the Beaumont Correction Center in Beaumont, Virginia. His scheduled release date is June 17, 2030.

“When I sent Yeardley off to college, my biggest fear was that she could be in a car accident, to or from school, or maybe get hurt on the lacrosse field,” Sharon Love said. “This never even occurred to me. It was foreign to me.”

Sharon Love said she was blindsided that her daughter was killed as a result of domestic violence.

She says now she works to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else’s child.

Julie Myers, One Love Foundation’s CEO, was Yeardley’s lacrosse coach at the University of Virginia.

“The work that we do here at the foundation is so incredibly important,” Myers said. “I wish that I knew more in 2010 because I would like to think that maybe I could have had a conversation with Yeardley.”

The One Love Foundation works to engage young people to have honest conversations about healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors.

There are currently 400 youth leaders in the leadership program throughout the country.

The foundation has worked with more than 373,000 students in Maryland.

Myers said she worked with the One Love Foundation when she was a coach at Virginia. The foundation now works with a number of colleges, high schools and middle schools throughout the country.

“We could never guarantee that it would never happen again, but we certainly wanted to make every effort to put ourselves in the position that we could be successful and have healthy relationships and really look out for a friend and know what to say to someone you may be worried about,” Myers said.

In addition to the community outreach, the One Love Foundation has free online resources to help serve their mission.