5 years after Parkland, families cope through good works

GERALD

By TERRY SPENCER

After a gunman murdered 14 students and three staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School five years ago Tuesday, their families were left with a burning question: How do we go on with our lives while honoring our loved one’s memory?

Most have answered by starting foundations or performing other charitable work dedicated to a variety of causes: protecting students; building parks and gardens; providing scholarships; fighting disease and helping the disabled; sending kids to camp; teaching children to swim, dance, create art or play music and sports; and tightening gun laws.

“For all of them, their biggest fear was that their loved one would be forgotten,” said Florida state Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, who was Parkland’s mayor in 2018 when the shooting happened. “They do this work to keep their spirit alive.”

Still, she said, “it is really important to remember that no matter how many ‘good things’ have come out of the aftermath, no one is ever the same again. No one loses that pain.”

Most of the families also belong to their group, Stand With Parkland.

Putting aside political differences, those families work with lawmakers nationally to see tougher school safety regulations enacted, train administrators to conduct more thorough threat assessments and assure threats reported to the FBI are passed to local law enforcement.

The group also promotes gun safety.

“When we listen to each other, politics doesn’t have to be a bad thing,” said Philip Schentrup, who lost his 16-year-old daughter Carmen in the shooting. “If you realize that 90% of the stuff in this world we agree on, it is not hard to make positive change.”

Some family projects have a political bent, but most don’t. Overall, millions of dollars have been raised.

These are their causes:

ALYSSA ALHADEFF

After losing their 14-yearold daughter Alyssa, Ilan and Lori Alhadeff began their foundation, Make Our Schools Safe.

It advocates in state legislatures for “Alyssa’s Law,” which requires that teachers receive panic buttons tied directly to law enforcement.

The law has been enacted in Florida, New York and New Jersey, and it is being considered federally and in several states.

The foundation has also distributed to schools kits for treating gunshot victims, and it started high school Make Our Schools Safe clubs to give students a voice and instruction on violence-prevention.