Foundation formed for Va. Tech shooting settlement

By Tonia Moxley

BLACKSBURG

Families of the victims and survivors of the April 16, 2007, shootings at Virginia Tech have launched a nonprofit organization using money from a settlement with the state.

The VTV (Virginia Tech Victims) Family Outreach Foundation Inc. has hired an executive director and established a 12-member board of directors.

The first full meeting of the board is scheduled next month in Centreville, Executive Director Lu Ann McNabb said.

The tax-exempt, nonprofit organization was incorporated in October 2009, and was set up with $1.75 million of the $11 million financial settlement between the state and most of the families. The $1.75 million was earmarked for charitable uses.

According to Guidestar.org, which tracks nonprofit groups, the foundation is listed as having $1.75 million in assets and $1.76 million in income. No expenses are listed.

The foundation lacks a main office, and McNabb, who was hired in July, works out of her home in Centreville. A website is in the works, she said.

Her first tasks have been to help the board narrow its mission and organize committees and documentation, as well as meet with as many of the families and survivors as possible.

“They are an incredibly courageous group, given what they’ve been through,” she said. “The survivors are unbelievable. They are incredibly strong.”

According to McNabb, the foundation has several goals, including providing support to the families of the deceased and the survivors, reaching out to other families who experience similar tragedies, ensuring that college and university campuses are safe and creating a living legacy for the 32 students and faculty who died that day in West Ambler Johnston and Norris halls.

McNabb has ties to the family of slain Tech student Reema Samaha, and directed the Angel Fund, an advocacy group dedicated to Samaha’s memory and affiliated with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

She stepped down from the fund to run the foundation, McNabb said.

An outspoken activist for K-12 education, McNabb has also publicly advocated that Virginia lawmakers close the “gunshow loophole.”

Some of the April 16 families have called for changes to existing legislation, which allows private sellers to sell firearms at gun shows without conducting instant background checks.

According to Virginia State Corporation Commission filings, Samaha’s father, Joseph Samaha of Centreville, is listed as the VTV foundation’s registered agent.

Board members include Michael Pohle, father of slain student Michael Pohle Jr; Susan Carney, mother of survivor Katelyn Carney; Beverly Bluhm, mother of the late Brian Bluhm; Granville Gwaltney, grandfater of Matthew Gwaltney, who was killed; and Elilta Habtu, who was injured in the shootings.