Support the Keep Going ; Scholarship in Daniel's Honor

Hi everyone..

My name is Dorothie Bonfanti and on 11/26/23, my 17 yr old son Daniel Watkins sadly died from suicide.

He was a senior at Lacey Township High School and also a student at OCVTS studying auto servicing part time, with dreams of graduating high school and working in the auto servicing industry, but that was only to waste time because he said his real dream was to become a rich and famous rock star drummer, and he really was such an amazing drummer. He was also an incredible artist and had such a creative imagination to draw the most amazingly detailed things. His personality was one of a kind and if you had the pleasure of meeting him once or knowing him for years, you knew this. He had the most infectious laugh that would make you laugh after hearing it and a smile that you loved but he most definitely hated because he hated his gap. He was funny and could come up with a comeback so quickly (I take credit for that and say he got that from me LOL).

While my mom heart cracks and breaks more and more as the days, weeks and months go on that I don’t have my only boy here with me, I felt I needed to start something yearly in his name, to keep his legacy going, no matter how short of a time he had here on this earth.

He touched so many lives in his 17 years, more than I had ever thought. As parents, we always hope others can see the light and good and love in our children, and over the last year I’ve actually seen that with the stories and the pictures that so many of Daniel’s friends and people that encountered him over the years have shown me. We want to touch someone else’s life in his name and give back even just a little bit of what Daniel gave to all of us.

So I reached out to LTHS and asked if I could start a yearly scholarship for Senior Scholarship Night in his name and I named it the Keep Going ; Scholarship in Honor of Daniel Watkins. It is a scholarship that is open to any senior at LTHS that plans to attend college or trade school after high school, regardless of academic achievements or sports affiliations. Every year the monetary portion of the scholarship and how many seniors are picked to receive it will be different because it all depends on how much money we are able to raise.

I have had many people reach out to me on how they can donate towards his scholarship, and while it was never our intention to start this, we decided to make this GoFundMe for anyone who would like to make a donation towards the scholarship. I will give updates on here as we go along in the months leading up to Senior Scholarship Night, which will be sometime in the beginning of June.

We will also be holding our 2nd Annual Daniel Watkins Memorial Show on April 19 2025 and all proceeds made from that show will go towards the scholarship. Details for that are on Facebook/Instagram and will be shared here as well.

Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for your continued mental/physical/emotional support of myself and my family through this time. There are not enough words to express how grateful we are for every single one of you, whether we knew you before all of this, or you only knew Daniel, and even those who have never met any of us but have felt a connection/calling to reach out to us through this.

Thank you for being the incredible people you are. We appreciate you all and love you all so much.