School Funding for Charity

In February 2017, Charity Woodrum experienced an unspeakable tragedy. She was at the Oregon Coast with her husband and 3 year old son, playing on the beach, when a sneaker wave pulled her husband and son out to sea, where they both drowned. Charity was only an arm's length away - just close enough to watch them, helplessly, as they floated out to sea and disappeared. Just far away enough not to be able to reach them as the wave took them.

Charity's husband and her son were her life. She has been devastated by losing them. Prior to this, Charity was a top student, overcoming incredible odds to go to college. Neither of her parents finished high school. Despite this, Charity was a top student. While working as a community nurse, she found herself reading Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan in her spare time. Eventually she realized that she wanted to study astrophysics and make a career in it. She enrolled at UO and, last fall before this horrible incident, she was awarded a NASA internship.

Here is a profile on Charity explaining the kind of person she was before this tragedy occurred - determined, brilliant and giving, exactly the kind of person that deserves our help:

http://www.dcpss.org/star-pupil/

Charity's husband was the family's breadwinner, and he sacrificed everything to help put her through school. Now, after this tragedy, she has not only lost her whole world, but her lifeline to school. Without her husband's income, she has had to move out of the house that harbored all the memories of her husband and child. She has had to try to make it day by day, trying to come to terms with more sadness than anyone should ever have to experience. The only thing she has left is the desire to fulfill her husband's dream for her - finishing her degree in astrophysics at UO.

There is another GoFundMe that was set up to help charity with memorial/funeral expenses and her day to day until she gets back on her feet. We would love nothing more than to raise enough to help Charity finish her education. (We have looked into student aid, but she has none left to her, and because of the way FAFSA calculates it based on tax returns, Charity's eligilibity won't change until the next school year is over.)

The world needs bright and hard-working minds like Charity's. She has shown so much promise as a student.

Please, help us raise the funds for Charity to finish her degree. Any excess can be used for graduate studies for her.

This was a horrible tragedy that could have happened to any of us. Charity will never be the same, but she has so much to give back to the world. Let us help her do that in honor of her husband and son.  Don't let this tragedy have taken everything from her.