The Bethany College community is rallying around Jeff Previdi from Newtown, Connecticut in the wake of last week’s shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The 1994 Bethany graduate’s daughter Caroline, 6, was one of the 20 kids killed in class. His son, an older student at Sandy Hook, survived the shootings.
Morgantown High School Football Coach John Bowers is a fraternity brother to Previdi. Both are part of Beta Theta Pi.
“Prev and I, we go back to days of some foolishness and some fun and some building of great relationships and friendships at Bethany,” Bowers said on Friday’s MetroNews Talkline.
“It’s been kind of a rough go here recently because I’ve got a four and a six year old at the house. It’s difficult and it’s even more difficult knowing Prev.”
He is supporting a fundraising effort from the Beta Theta Pi chapter at Bethany College in Brooke College. The chapter has established a scholarship fund in Caroline’s name and, already, more than $13,000 has been donated to the fund.
The endowment will provide annual college scholarships to students majoring in education, especially those focused on elementary education.
Bowers says it’s appropriate. “There’s some school teachers in that building that are heros, that saved lives and there are some school teachers in that building who also died,” he said.
“Being a school teacher myself, this thing just hits me on so many levels.”
Donations for the Caroline Previdi of Sandy Hook Elementary Memorial Scholarship can be mailed to the following address:
Beta Theta Pi Foundation
c/o Caroline Previdi of Sandy Hook Elementary Memorial Scholarship Fund
P.O. Box 6277
5134 Bonham Road
Oxford, OH 45056
Online donations can also be made through a link available on Beta Theta Pi’s Facebook page.