Daniel Pritchard’s birthday is coming up on June 12. But this year, as last, his family will be marking the day without the person they thought of as Verona’s Superman: Pritchard was murdered at the Sunoco gas station on Pompton Avenue on Feb. 22, 2009.
The Pritchard family has decided to turn this year’s birthday gathering into the first fundraising event for their new Daniel Pritchard Foundation. “We are trying to make a positive situation out of something so negative that happened to our family,” says Danny’s brother, Michael Pritchard.
Money raised at the gathering, a $40 per person event that will be open only to family and friends this year, will be used to fund both a scholarship for a Verona High School senior and relief to families who have lost their chief provider to violence. If you are not a guest this year but want to contribute, send a check to The Daniel Prichard Foundation at P.O. Box 113, Cedar Grove, NJ 07009.
Michael Pritchard says the family has received 16 scholarship applications so far. Students had to submit a three-part essay detailing an obstacle that they had overcome and what they learned from that effort; what others would say are characteristics about themselves that they should not change; and what they are ready to do to contribute to society once they leave VHS.
“We had the idea for the fundraiser late”, Michael Pritchard says. “But we want to get people aware of a good cause and create something that can carry on for years to come. The more successful it is, the more it will grow.”
Just as Superman would have wanted it.
