On this date, 23 July 2007, The Cheshire,
Connecticut, home invasion murders occurred, when a mother and her two daughters were murdered during a
home invasion in Cheshire, Connecticut. The Hartford Courant referred to
the case as "possibly the most widely publicized crime in the state's
history". In 2010, Steven Hayes was convicted of the murders and sentenced
to death. His accomplice, Joshua Komisarjevsky, was found guilty on October 13,
2011, and sentenced to death on January 27, 2012.
We, the
VFFDP, thank God that the repeal of Connecticut’s death penalty does not apply
to those 11 on death row. We hope everybody can remember William Petit and his
slain family in your prayers. His family members were murdered six years ago,
please remember this date every year. Do remember to donate money to the Petit Family Foundation.
 |
|
When they were whole: A June, 2007 photo shows Dr
William Petit, left, with his daughters Michaela, front, Hayley, centre rear,
and his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts
|
Please go to this
Blog Post to learn more about the murders. We will now post another article on
Friday July 20, 2013 to learn about the latest news of the Petit Family
Foundation:
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://touch.courant.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-76721675/
Spirit Of
Petit Women Lives On; Foundation Distributes $1 Million
By MATTHEW
KAUFFMAN, mkauffman@courant.com
7:48 am,
July 20, 2013
Hayley
Petit planned to study biology at Dartmouth College and join others blazing a
trail of women in science.
Her
little sister, Michaela, not even a teenager, loved flowers, excelled in school
and embodied the family's commitment to helping others.
And
their mother, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, cared for young bodies and young minds as a
nurse at Cheshire Academy, even as she faced her own battle with multiple
sclerosis.
All
three were lost six years ago this week when a burst of unfathomable violence
descended on their Cheshire home, stealing lives with seemingly boundless
promise.
But
their spirit has lived on.
"Because
you are gone, it now falls to me to be the change you wanted to see in the
world," Dr. William Petit said at a memorial concert last year for his
wife and daughters. And he has pursued that mission in large measure through
the Petit Family Foundation, a non-profit established within months of the July
23, 2007, Cheshire home invasion.
The
foundation has grown every year since, and has now distributed more than $1
million in grants that match the interests of the Petit women and also support
victims of violence.
"I'm
happy that we've done a lot of good in Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela's
name," said William Petit, the sole survivor of the attack. "I know
they'd be smiling mightily seeing all the good that's gone on."
A
key goal of the foundation is fostering the education of young people,
especially women in the sciences. To the end, $50,000 has been donated to the
Connecticut Science Center for "Michaela's Garden," an ambitious
horticulture project and rooftop garden featuring one of Michaela's favorite
flowers, Four O'Clocks.
The
foundation also supports the Connecticut Invention Convention, in which
elementary and middle school students showcase creative solutions to everyday
problems. (Among the ideas honored this year with the foundation's Promising
Young Women Inventors award: a light-up, vibrating bracelet to alert deaf
parents that their baby is crying in another room, and a smoke-detector-equipped
dog crate that automatically opens in the event of a fire.)
Money
has also gone for science programs in the Plainville school system and to
Suffield Academy and New Britain and Cheshire public schools, and the
foundation has provided funds for more than $100,000 in scholarships for
Connecticut students.
Hayley
and Michaela raised money for multiple sclerosis research and to assist
families affected by MS, and the foundation has continued those efforts,
donating more than $70,000 to causes related to chronic illnesses.
The
foundation has made other health-related grants, accepting requests from
Bristol Hospital, Charlotte Hungerford Hospital and the Hospital for Special
Care's "Manes & Motions" riding center, which uses therapeutic
horseback riding to improve the well-being of children and adults with physical
and neurological disabilities. Money also has gone to the Connecticut Nurses
Foundation.
The
vast majority of the foundation's grants for anti-violence initiatives have
gone to organizations that battle domestic violence.
"That,
I'm sorry to say, is not an uncommon request," said M. Burch Tracy Ford,
chair of the foundation's grants committee, adding that of the last five grant
requests received by the foundation, four were from domestic-violence groups.
Over
the years, the foundation has funded programs at the Prudence Crandall Center
in New Britain, the Susan B. Anthony Project in Torrington, the Women's Center
of Southeastern Connecticut in New London and the Network Against Domestic
Abuse in Enfield.
"There's
never any paucity of requests, and there are always more requests than we have
allocated funds for," Ford said.
But
she said board members hate to say no, and have been willing to stretch the
foundation's annual giving budget.
As
a result, the foundation's endowment stands at about $3.5 million, somewhat
short of the $5 million board members eventually hope to have in assets. Still,
the endowment has grown year-by-year, and Ronald Bucchi, the foundation's
treasurer, said Petit and other board members ultimately are more concerned
with doing good works than building a mountain of cash.
Still,
Petit said his wish is for the foundation to have sufficient assets to be
making grants for many years to come.
"I'd
like it to sort of be the lifetime of the girls," he said. "Jennifer
would be 55 now, and Hayley would be 231/2 and Michaela would be 171/2 now, and
I'd sort of like it to represent their lifetimes in a way."
As
the foundation's assets have grown, board members have decided to award major
"signature grants" once a year, including a $100,000 pledge last
month to the Prudence Crandall Center. The money will pay for
violence-prevention programs in schools and elsewhere, aimed at teaching young
women to recognize the elements of healthy and unhealthy relationships.
Barbara
Damon, executive director of the Prudence Crandall Center, said the foundation
grant is significant because federal money typically only supports shelters and
other services for women who are already victims of domestic violence.
"We
need to provide that safety net of services, but we also need to be about the
business of preventing future violence," Damon said. "The Petit
Family Foundation has time and again supported domestic violence work at the
Prudence Crandall Center, and without their funds we would not be able to do
the prevention and awareness raising work that needs to be done."
Last
year, the foundation provided $100,000 to WFSB-TV's Channel 3 Kids Camp for the
construction of a new nurse's station known as the Jennifer L. Hawke-Petit
Health Lodge.
"This
was just the kind of facility she loved to work in," William Petit said
last October as the lodge was dedicated, "taking care of kids' bumps and
bruises and scrapes, as well as their psychological well-being when they're
home sick and missing their mom and dad and brothers and sisters."
In
all, the foundation has written checks to more than 60 agencies, with amounts
ranging from $250 to the six-figure signature grants.
The
foundation gave out relatively little in donations during its first three
years, as organizers worked to build a sustainable endowment. Through June
2010, the foundation collected about $1.7 million in contributions and revenue
from fundraisers, and gave away barely more than $100,000.
But
during the following year, a college classmate of William Petit's made a $1
million donation to the foundation, dramatically increasing the foundation's
endowment and giving board members the confidence to begin making significant
grants.
"That
created sustainability for us," Bucchi said. "We were chugging along,
but that was a significant gift both in value and in sustainability."
The
foundation now receives the bulk of its revenue from several high-profile
annual fundraising events, including a 5K run, a golf tournament and a science
gala. William Petit has become a fixture at all of them, as well as a familiar
face at dozens of smaller events, where he promotes both the direct work of the
foundation and the broader legacy of the lives lost six years ago Tuesday.
"If
there is anything to be gained from the senseless deaths of my beautiful
family," Petit said recently, "it is to live with a faith that
embodies action: Help a neighbor, fight for a cause, love your family, go
forward and spread the work of these three wonderful, beautiful women."
Information on the Petit Family Foundation is available
at http://www.petitfamilyfoundation.org
We, the VFFDP, had
already blogged four rebuttal essays to the abolitionists who showed support
for the murderers at Connecticut State:
1. Response to Connecticut's Repeal of
the death penalty.
2. MY
RESPONSE TO ANTOINETTE BOSCO’S ARTICLE: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT NO SOLACE TO
SURVIVORS (23 OCTOBER 2011)
3. DISTURBING
IDEA: LET THE PETIT KILLERS LIVE?
4. JESUS
CARES FOR VICTIMS’ FAMILIES (THE VFFDP RESPONDS TO JESSE JAMES DECONTO)
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