PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — “On April 8, 2020 my son Curtis Walton was senselessly and lawlessly murdered in the city of Portsmouth,” said Bonnie Walton.
In the year after Curtis’s death, Walton created Curtis Walton Empowers. It’s a nonprofit organization based on their family values and how to give back to the community.
“He enjoyed helping other people no matter were they are from. What they did,” Walton said.
The nonprofit’s first investment was giving a family in Uganda a water tank that provided them, when full, a three-month supply of clean fresh rainwater.
“Helping them realize their potential and then investing in their lives so that they would give back and then invest in someone else life,” Walton said.
Walton’s nonprofit stepped up again this time making a donation to a class here at Churchland Elementary.
“To me it means showing kids what they can do,” Walton said.
For 31 years, Patricia Varnell has been a teacher in the Portsmouth Public Schools and she is retiring at the end of the year. She was very thankful of the cash donation, which she used to purchase books on kindness and helping others.
“Because my kids do not get asked often to join clubs or special activities because people under estimate them,” Varnell said.
Varnell’s class of eight students held a food drive leading up to the Super Bowl that collected 380 cans of soup. The donations went to Shining Light Homes, a charity that helps young moms. They also put together bags of essentials for the families at the HER Shelter.
“I think it made them feel good about themselves because in their own way of understanding they were helping others in Portsmouth,” Varnell said. “They showed me and they showed the school this is what we did.”
It’s all about keeping the life and legacy of Curtis Walton alive by empowering individuals to accomplish their dreams, in a classroom of kids in the city where Curtis Walton was raised.
“I am just reminded of a quote and it is ‘to change the life of a child you have changed the world’ and here we have not changed the life of one child. We have changed the life of a class,” said Curtis’ sister, Cheryl.
As far as the investigation into Walton’s death, the Portsmouth Police Department has identified several persons of interest, but to this point have made no arrests. If you have any information that could help, please contact the Portsmouth Police.
