Children Of Fallen Patriots Foundation Gives Scholarships To Military Children: “It’s Our Way Of Honoring Our Fallen Heroes!”
After losing a sergeant during an operation, David Kim felt moved to help military children
Sgt. William Delaney Gibbs — the only member of David Kim’s army battalion to be killed in Panama — was just 21 when machine-gun fire killed him during Operation Just Cause in 1989. David had never met Sgt. Gibbs personally, but he heard that his widow was having a baby girl in a few months, and David felt heartbroken.
Who is going to take care of that little girl? David thought. How can we honor the sacrifice of people like him?
David got out of the Army in 1992, went to business school, built a career, married and had kids of his own. But he never stopped thinking about how he might help kids like Sgt. Gibbs’ little girl someday. And, in 2001, he decided the time had come to take action.
Realizing education was the key to a brighter future and recognizing the financial struggles many Gold Star families face, David started the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation (FallenPatriots.org), an organization that, thanks to donations, funds college scholarships for children who have lost a parent in military service.
Making a difference
While the government funds some college expenses for Gold Star families for a four-year college, each student faces a shortcoming of about $30,000. Since CFP started, the foundation, which in 2002 became a nonprofit, has filled that gap with more than $60 million for some 3,300 students around the country. CFP staff work with the VA to identify and reach out to potential scholarship recipients, but some students approach the organization. Recipients need to maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA.
Cassidy La Bouff, whose father, Army Maj. Douglas La Bouff, died in Iraq in 2006, when she was just 7, graduated in 2021 from Colorado State University debt-free, thanks to a CFP scholarship.“That is a gift I will never be able to pay back, or even be able to express how incredible it was,” Cassidy says. “It took a giant weight off of us.”
Retired Army Col. Jeanette McMahon, whose husband, Lt. Col. Mike McMahon, died in Afghanistan in 2004, is grateful for the almost $200,000 the foundation spent to put her three sons through college. “It was a significant amount of money, but emotionally, it was so helpful to know that Americans truly cared about us, and that we weren’t left behind,” says McMahon, who now works as the development officer for CFP.
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“I think for a lot of people, this is a way to serve their country,” David says. “Everyone by and large loves our military. They appreciate what we do. We believe this is the best way we can honor our fallen heroes: to give their children the bright future they would have wanted for them.”
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