A lifelong educator, Gabrielle Benson worked her way up the ladder. She started as a classroom teacher in 1998 in the Archdioceses of Los Angeles, eventually getting her Masters and developing the first ever inclusive education program at the high school level for the system. A devout Catholic, she jumped when a principal position opened in her own parish just 4 miles from home, eventually being named Principal of the Year in her district. Experience like that led the system to ask her to take on more, and she was named Assistant Superintendent for the San Fernando Valley in 2017.
All that experience meant she knew the strains that her fellow teachers were under. Over the years, her husband Mike estimated that they put thousands of dollars into her classroom and the schools where she worked. "The last year she was principal we put almost $25,000 into St Jane's. We were paying for one underprivileged student to attend school, supplies, food for the faculty, TV's, computers, whatever was needed." Whenever anyone asked, Gabe told them that it was paid for by the Benson Family Fund
Then one morning in August of 2018 she woke up and was having trouble breathing. Mike called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. There the doctors think she threw a blood clot from her leg to her lung, causing a massive heart attack. Mike was with her as they fought to save her life, but to no avail. Gabe was only 47, and she and Mike had been married for just over 20 years.
Said Mike, "The night she died, I could not sleep. And while lying awake it came to me that rather than have folks send me flowers I wanted to give back to the schools to which she gave her life." The idea wasn't to fund anything big or splashy, but to contribute in her memory for those things that schools always have need but for which they never have funds: equipment, a water bill, a new paint job. "So I came up with the idea for the Gabrielle Benson Fund."
Mike started a GoFundMe page, and brought in nearly $18,000 from friends and family. He contacted the school district to see which schools could use the kind of assistance he had in mind. Together they came up with five, including St. Catherine of Siena, where Gabe started her career and where she and Mike were married, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, where she was principal, and three others.
One by one Mike went to deliver the funds in person and to talk about Gabe. One school in a poor neighborhood was trying to reinvent itself as a STEM school and needed equipment, an area near and dear to Gabe's heart with her Bachelor's degree in biology. Another was going to use the funds to plant a memorial garden to use for teaching, as well as to help pay for repairs due to rain damage to the office. For others the connection was more personal: one principal talked about all the support Gabe had given him when he took the job, and how he had he saved one of her voicemails on his phone and listens to it on tough days to give him inspiration. He was hoping to use the money to paint two of the classrooms that were in bad shape.
Losing someone you love is never easy. Losing someone who is young is orders of magnitude harder. And losing someone young suddenly, who was here yesterday and not today, presses the needle to the limit. Of course it happens everyday, and those left behind try and find some way to console themselves, keep memories alive, and perhaps bring some good from the tragedy. For Mike, the Fund hits all three marks. "Even though she could make 3 times the money in the LA unified system, her spirituality and love of the church is what lead her to teach in the Catholic Schools," he said. She did so to fulfill her own calling, one which Mike said was only reinforced by every principal he visited. "To a person they all talked about how Gabe helped them, and gave them the inspiration to be the best they could be." As a legacy, you can't ask for a better teachable moment.
-END-
You can contribute at gofundme.com/gabrielle-benson-fund. Marc's column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
All that experience meant she knew the strains that her fellow teachers were under. Over the years, her husband Mike estimated that they put thousands of dollars into her classroom and the schools where she worked. "The last year she was principal we put almost $25,000 into St Jane's. We were paying for one underprivileged student to attend school, supplies, food for the faculty, TV's, computers, whatever was needed." Whenever anyone asked, Gabe told them that it was paid for by the Benson Family Fund
Then one morning in August of 2018 she woke up and was having trouble breathing. Mike called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. There the doctors think she threw a blood clot from her leg to her lung, causing a massive heart attack. Mike was with her as they fought to save her life, but to no avail. Gabe was only 47, and she and Mike had been married for just over 20 years.
Said Mike, "The night she died, I could not sleep. And while lying awake it came to me that rather than have folks send me flowers I wanted to give back to the schools to which she gave her life." The idea wasn't to fund anything big or splashy, but to contribute in her memory for those things that schools always have need but for which they never have funds: equipment, a water bill, a new paint job. "So I came up with the idea for the Gabrielle Benson Fund."
Mike started a GoFundMe page, and brought in nearly $18,000 from friends and family. He contacted the school district to see which schools could use the kind of assistance he had in mind. Together they came up with five, including St. Catherine of Siena, where Gabe started her career and where she and Mike were married, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, where she was principal, and three others.
One by one Mike went to deliver the funds in person and to talk about Gabe. One school in a poor neighborhood was trying to reinvent itself as a STEM school and needed equipment, an area near and dear to Gabe's heart with her Bachelor's degree in biology. Another was going to use the funds to plant a memorial garden to use for teaching, as well as to help pay for repairs due to rain damage to the office. For others the connection was more personal: one principal talked about all the support Gabe had given him when he took the job, and how he had he saved one of her voicemails on his phone and listens to it on tough days to give him inspiration. He was hoping to use the money to paint two of the classrooms that were in bad shape.
Losing someone you love is never easy. Losing someone who is young is orders of magnitude harder. And losing someone young suddenly, who was here yesterday and not today, presses the needle to the limit. Of course it happens everyday, and those left behind try and find some way to console themselves, keep memories alive, and perhaps bring some good from the tragedy. For Mike, the Fund hits all three marks. "Even though she could make 3 times the money in the LA unified system, her spirituality and love of the church is what lead her to teach in the Catholic Schools," he said. She did so to fulfill her own calling, one which Mike said was only reinforced by every principal he visited. "To a person they all talked about how Gabe helped them, and gave them the inspiration to be the best they could be." As a legacy, you can't ask for a better teachable moment.
-END-
You can contribute at gofundme.com/gabrielle-benson-fund. Marc's column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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