Oklahoma bomb fuels legacy of donations
Source: Agencies |
April 20, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
DION Thomas' life began spiraling out of control after her mother was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing: She started skipping classes and her top marks started slipping to poor ones, failures and incompletes.
She stayed in her bedroom for days, unable to come out. No one let her see her mother's body to say goodbye, thinking it was better for her daughter to remember how she was alive. "I pretty much almost dropped out of high school," said Thomas, who was a sophomore when her mother, US Social Security Administration employee Charlotte Thomas, died in the April 19, 1995, attack in the American state of Oklahoma.
Thomas limped to graduation with no idea about her future. But 15 years later, she is a college graduate working toward an advanced degree in speech pathology at Howard University in Washington, DC, all because of a fund that ensured her tuition would be covered because of the loss she suffered as a child.
More than 200 children had parents killed or disabled when an anti-government conspirator's truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building. Thomas and others have benefited from a continuing legacy of the attack: the outpouring of donations from people who wanted to help the families of the victims.
At the time of the blast, the children ranged from infants to teenagers. Suddenly, they were left to be raised by single parents or grandparents, were placed with other family members or sent to homes in other states.
Money available
With the scholarship money available, about two-thirds have since gone on to college or other education programs, and the graduates now include physicians, lawyers, veterinarians and pharmacists.
"It was not about distributing money," said Nancy Anthony, executive director of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, which administers the fund created from the donations. "It was about how to help people restore their lives."
She said the fund has spent about US$6 million on tuition, housing and other educational costs. It has also paid for counseling for depression and emotional problems.
As the bombing shattered the lives of the victims' families, the donations have changed the future for many of the children.
She stayed in her bedroom for days, unable to come out. No one let her see her mother's body to say goodbye, thinking it was better for her daughter to remember how she was alive. "I pretty much almost dropped out of high school," said Thomas, who was a sophomore when her mother, US Social Security Administration employee Charlotte Thomas, died in the April 19, 1995, attack in the American state of Oklahoma.
Thomas limped to graduation with no idea about her future. But 15 years later, she is a college graduate working toward an advanced degree in speech pathology at Howard University in Washington, DC, all because of a fund that ensured her tuition would be covered because of the loss she suffered as a child.
More than 200 children had parents killed or disabled when an anti-government conspirator's truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building. Thomas and others have benefited from a continuing legacy of the attack: the outpouring of donations from people who wanted to help the families of the victims.
At the time of the blast, the children ranged from infants to teenagers. Suddenly, they were left to be raised by single parents or grandparents, were placed with other family members or sent to homes in other states.
Money available
With the scholarship money available, about two-thirds have since gone on to college or other education programs, and the graduates now include physicians, lawyers, veterinarians and pharmacists.
"It was not about distributing money," said Nancy Anthony, executive director of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, which administers the fund created from the donations. "It was about how to help people restore their lives."
She said the fund has spent about US$6 million on tuition, housing and other educational costs. It has also paid for counseling for depression and emotional problems.
As the bombing shattered the lives of the victims' families, the donations have changed the future for many of the children.
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