Connecticut

Family of Teen Killed in Parkland, Florida School Shooting Launches UConn Scholarship

The family of a student who was killed in the mass shooting at a Florida high school in February has started a scholarship at the University of Connecticut in his memory. 

Max Schachter and his wife, Caryn DeSacia, launched the Alex Schachter and Family Memorial Scholarship and hope to award a “scholarship each year to a student who, like Alex, always wanted to play in the UConn marching band,” according to the website set up about the scholarship.

The 14-year-old dreamed of going to UConn and the university made him an honorary Husky posthumously after learning of his love for the school

“After this horrible tragedy, we just wanted to try to have something good come of this,” Alex’s father, Max Schachter, said in a statement that UConn released. “We’re hoping that it will keep Alex’s memory alive for years and years to come.”

UConn said Alex’s first exposure to the school came when he was 5 years old and his aunt and uncle, Patti and Paul Goldberg, of Southington, brought him and his brother, Ryan, for a visit to campus to help them remember their mother, Debbie Goldberg Schachter, a member of the class of 1993 (CLAS), who died when Alex was 4.

Alex, who was a high school freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, played the baritone horn and trombone in the high school band and was on a recreational basketball team.

“Alex was one of us, a real person, a trombone player, and someone lost from our band,” UConn’s director of bands, David Mills, said in a statement.

The band made pins with Alex’s name and wore them at all their performances. They also hung a photo of Alex in the practice room and the trombone section left an empty chair for him during rehearsals.

The Schachter family gave an initial donation to set up the scholarship and plans to continue fundraising in hopes of raising at least $50,000 to endow the scholarship permanently, according to UConn.

Learn more about the scholarship here.  

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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