PEABODY – At Thursday night’s City Council meeting, Mayor Ted Bettencourt brought forward a special event application from the family of eighth grader Jason Bernard, who died by suicide due to bullying this past May.
Bettencourt began by sharing that he was “very happy to bring forward this particular proposal.”
Cely Rosario and her brother Luis Santana brought forward the application.
Rosario said, “We’re turning our grief into action and looking to promote Jason’s Legacy Foundation to recruit funds to give a scholarship to a student that may have (experienced) something similar to Jason and just really trying to reintegrate into this diverse community so that we can be more engaging and supportive to one another.”
The corn hole tournament will be Saturday, Sept. 20 at East End Peabody Veterans Memorial Park at 45 Walnut St. The event begins at 1 p.m., although, according to Rosario, attendees can begin signing up for the tournament at 11:30 a.m. that day.
Bettencourt is asking the Peabody community to attend the corn hole tournament and be “part of something very special as we kick off this effort.” He added, “I really want to thank Jason’s family, who are here, who are really helping us on a number of issues to try and do better as a community and our school system and across our community.”
Bettencourt also told City Council, and the Peabody community in attendance in person and online, that there will be a 5K walk in Jason’s memory on Saturday, Oct. 11, although those logistics are not yet solidified.
What is known now is that the event will take place at Captain Samuel Brown Elementary School, as Jason went to elementary school there. The 5K walk will begin at the Brown School as well as end at the Brown School.
Bettencourt explained that he hopes to make this 5K an annual event that happens each August, ahead of the upcoming school year, but this year it will be in October.
