By Stacy case
After the dust settled a bit from the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day, many people and groups seemed to channel their anguish into effort in one way or another.
Johanna Feis, sister of school shooting victim Aaron Feis, put her best foot forward and put together a committee to do something special to pay homage to her late brother. Aaron had been heavily involved in the school’s football program for several years so she wanted to keep that theme alive.
Johanna and company put their heads together quickly and a few small ideas turned into what became the Feis Bowl. It was a few football games comprised of alumni and students as a medium for the Coach Aaron Feis Foundation and other non-profit local organizations.
While funds from the event are still being tallied and divvied, Johanna already has her sights set on what can be done to make 2019’s Bowl even better than the inaugural affair.
The committee members are certainly planning on making the Feis Bowl an annual event. “We wanted to do something in his honor; people know what happened here and we wanted to create something nice in his name but at first we didn’t know exactly what to do,” says Johanna, who is Aaron’s younger sister.
And, given the small time frame they had to work with, Johanna says event planners already have the wheels in motion for the Second Annual Feis Bowl.
“Aaron was and will always be my brother; I shared him with so many people and everyone who knew him knows that this is something wonderful to do in order to remember him by while raising funds for this new Foundation,” adds Johanna. “We had such a small time frame to put this together and now we’ll have an entire year to do more for the next year and going forward.”
The Bowl encompassed several games, flag football style, in which alumni from various years played against the prospective 2018-2019 team. The event reached so many years of alumni, that even those from the earliest graduating classes of 1992, 1993 and 1994 attended the event to show their support for the cause. The school opened its doors with freshmen, sophomores and juniors in 1990.
All in all, both players and spectators amassed about 1,300 people last month at Cumber Stadium on Douglas grounds. Known fondly as “The Eagle’s Nest,” Johanna said it was nice to see smiling faces at the field and on the school’s campus, once again.
“We wanted people to know that Douglas is still a place of joy and that a lot of good things do happen here,” Johanna adds. “I can’t wait to see what we come up with for next year.”
Although the 2018 event has concluded, the Foundation will accept year-round donations,
Please visit coachfeisfoundation.org for more info.
