DATE: April 10, 2008

CONTACT: Lex Bozzo, (973) 768-9446
abozzo@clemson.edu

WRITER: Angela Nixon, (864) 656-0382
anixon@clemson.edu

Clemson 5K run/walk to honor Virginia Tech victim Jeremy Herbstritt

Race to raise money for Jeremy Herbstritt Memorial Fund

CLEMSON – Clemson University graduate student Lex Bozzo, who graduated from Virginia Tech last May, wasn’t even on campus April 16, 2007, but she – like so many others – experienced a great loss that day. Bozzo’s boyfriend Jeremy Herbstritt was one of 32 people killed by a gunman on Virginia Tech’s campus.

Bozzo’s classmates in the city and regional planning graduate program are pulling together to help her honor Herbstritt’s memory with J-Herb’s Roaring 5K Sunday, at 8:30 a.m. April 20. The certified 5K run/walk will start at Edwards Hall and will wind through campus, ending at Lowry Hall.

Because Herbstritt was an avid runner, Bozzo said she couldn’t think of a better way to honor his memory. Bozzo started running after he died

“I’ve never been a runner before, but I have been running in his memory. It helps keep part of him alive for me,” she said. Bozzo said she plans to someday run a half-marathon in memory of Herbstritt.

Herbstritt was one of four children who grew up on a farm in rural Bellefonte, Pa. He earned a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Penn State University before changing career paths and getting another bachelor’s degree, this one in civil engineering. Bozzo said he was a dedicated student who had to work his way through school with a job at the power plant at Penn State. He also found time to give back to his community; he and his father would regularly help out at homeless shelters and soup kitchens on holidays.

“He was not a rich kid,” she said. “He was not the type of person that gunman thought he was targeting.”

Bozzo, a New Jersey native, met Herbstritt at Virginia Tech. She was studying political science and interdisciplinary studies and he was a graduate student in civil engineering. She had been accepted into Clemson’s city and regional planning graduate program and Herbstritt planned to move to the area after he completed his degree in May.

Bozzo said Herbstritt was an active outdoorsman and loved to kayak. She believes he would have loved the Clemson area.

“Part of the reason I wanted to have the run on campus was because the runners will get to see the views of Clemson he never got to experience,” she said.

Registration the day of the race begins at 7:15 a.m. and is $16. Proceeds from the race will go to the Jeremy Herbstritt Memorial Fund at Virginia Tech, which is used for scholarships. The race is sponsored by Clemson’s student chapter of the American Planning Association.

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