***Congrats to all 10 year reunion attendees. We raised almost $700 for the Katie foundation through the raffle and ticket sales.***
To: Lakewood High School
Class of 1998
My name is Jeff Froeschle, and I am the father of Katrina “Katie” Froeschle. Katie was a member of the Lakewood H.S. Class of 1998. As many of you probably know, Katie was murdered in November 2004, while working as an insurance adjuster adjusting a claim at a property in Tampa. I appreciate very much the plan to support Katie’s Foundation.
We moved to St. Petersburg in 1995. Katie started her sophomore year at Lakewood. She came to love Lakewood High School and participated in many activities at school. She played on the Lakewood J.V. basketball team for two seasons, played on the Lakewood softball team, was a member of the swim team one year, played powder puff football. She wasn’t a star athlete; she was just someone who loved to participate. In addition, Katie was a wrestlerette, a member of the snow ski club, and the Future Business Leaders Club. She attended most of the school events and came to have many friends at Lakewood. She loved her years at Lakewood.
After graduating from Lakewood H.S., Katie attended Florida State University on a Bright Futures Scholarship. As a junior she pledged and became a member of Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority. After graduating from FSU, Katie moved to Tampa where she took a job as an insurance adjuster. Katie was very close to her family. She talked to her mother on the phone every day, and frequently went shopping with her. She met me for lunch during the work week whenever we could arrange it. She loved her younger brothers, and attended their school activities whenever she could.
On November 12, 2004, Katie went to a rental property in Sulfur Springs, a neighborhood in North Tampa, to adjust a claim for damage to a house resulting from one of the four hurricanes that struck in 2004. When she went to that property, a 27 year-old man who had just moved in to the rental house, who had been fired by the motorcycle shop where he was employed just days before for theft of parts from the shop, bludgeoned Katie to death with a motorcycle tail pipe. The murderer did not give a reason for his brutal attack. He just admitted guilt to all counts and was sentenced to life in prison without opportunity for parole.
In the wake of losing Katie, we looked for ways to remember her. In 2005, we established a scholarship fund at Florida State University, The Katrina Anne “Katie” Froeschle Memorial Scholarship Fund at the College of Business. Katie’s Scholarship Fund is now an endowment. The FSU College of Business is able to give at least 3 scholarships from the Fund to deserving students every year in perpetuity.
In the spring of 2007, we wanted to do more than the scholarship fund. We wanted to have an organization in the Tampa Bay area that would support FSU, but also support causes in Tampa and St. Petersburg. In May 2007, Katie’s friends, colleagues, and family formed the Katie Froeschle Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization. We have a website, www.katiefoundation.org. Katie’s Foundation continues to support FSU and Katie’s Scholarship fund. However, it also supports organizations in the Tampa Bay area that assist families coping with the traumatic loss of loved ones. This year we are giving a grant to the Life Center, an organization that provides grief counseling and has various support groups for grieving persons. It serves as a refuge and place for a person to learn to live without their loved one and to find ways to continue their lives. I personally know the value and importance of the Life Center’s services because the people at the Life Center helped me a great deal after our loss.
She was a kind, loving, loved, young woman and a bright star in our lives. Our loss was a loss to our community as well. We want to keep her memory alive in a positive way through The Katie Froeschle Foundation.
Thank you for thinking of Katie at the time of your 10-year class reunion.
Sincerely,
Jeff Froeschle
Katie’s Dad
