I can’t imagine greater pain and stress than from losing a loved one younger than you. In a distant second or third place for causing pain and stress is going under from financial burden. That is why I think the Sandy Hook School Memorial Scholarship Fund is a good choice for coming to the aid of those most affected by the tragedy in Newtown.
The seed money for the fund was donated by Geno Auriemma, coach of the UConn women’s basketball team. The purpose is to enable those young people most affected by the Newtown tragedy to be able to go to college eventually without financial worry. For decades education costs have inflated much faster than median family income, leading us into greater debt all the while. For the Newtown families that struggle with unimaginable pain at least they might avoid some of the all too common pain much of middle class America now goes through.
I led into this topic yesterday with a reference to the Waynesboro Baptist scam and head con man, Fred Phelps. Their con is to get money from “damages” when people try to deprive them of the right to free speech; in this case protesting the funerals at Newtown as a sign of a Godless nation. Once again, this is a scam wielded by a con man, the more we strive to stop them the more we are doing exactly what they want. Even reacting to it in anger provides them publicity that they seek. Hatebusters counter solution was to make donations to targets of their protests in their name. If you feel so compelled, you might want to list Fred Phelps on the Sandy Hook form as a person you are making a joint gift with.
