A public memorial for Charlie Kirk will take place Sept. 21 in Glendale, Ariz., Turning Point USA announced Saturday.
It will occur inside State Farm Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, which can hold more than 63,000 people.
Kirk, 31, was fatally shot during an event on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday. The accused gunman, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was taken into custody by the FBI late Thursday evening.
Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012. The conservative activist group has 900 official college chapters and roughly 1,200 high school chapters.
Andrew Kolvet, the executive producer of Kirk’s eponymous show and a Turning Point spokesperson, said in a social media post Sunday that “the organization has received over 32,000 inquiries in the last 48-hours to start new campus chapters.”
“Charlie’s vision to have a Club America chapter (our high school brand) in every high school in America (around 23,000) will come true much much faster than he could have ever possibly imagined,” Kolvet said.
President Trump told reporters Thursday that he planned to attend a service for Kirk. During remarks at the Pentagon commemorating the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Trump also announced that he will posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Vice President Vance also traveled with his wife, Usha, to Salt Lake City, Utah, on Thursday to meet with Kirk’s family. Kirk’s casket was flown from Salt Lake City to Phoenix on Air Force Two, the vice president’s official plane.
Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika, and their two children. On Friday, in her first public remarks since her husband’s death, Kirk’s widow said, “If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea.”
“To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die,” she added.
