source: http://goo.gl/OXOXc
Hayley Petit planned to study biology at
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
All three were lost six years ago this week when a burst of
unfathomable violence descended on their
"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
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 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
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
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
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
"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 23 1/2 and Michaela would
be 17 1/2 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
Barbara Damon, executive director of the
"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
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