Remembering Patrick

Friends organize new nonprofit and prepare to hold inaugural event, the May Madness three-on-three basketball tournament

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted Photo Andrew Merritt, left, clowns around with his friend, Patrick Kepferle, during the summer of 1999, after both graduated from Great Mills High School and were preparing to leave for college that fall. Merritt is now president of the board of a new nonprofit created in Kepferle’s memory. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

She remembers how he’d make faces at her to make her laugh during Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church. She went to the eighth-grade dance with him.

Andrew Merritt describes Patrick Kepferle as being particularly gifted with people.

‘‘He had a way of bringing people together like no other. When he was in a room, you knew it,” Merritt said last week. ‘‘He was the funniest person you could be around ... And he was brilliant.”

He loved sports — basketball, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, tennis. He loved being around people. Kepferle participated in theater in high school. He played several musical instruments. He dreamed of some day pursuing a career as a comedian. He was voted the most likely to be famous in his senior class at Great Mills High School.

Kepferle’s life, however, was unexpectedly short. He died from meningococcal disease, a severe bacterial infection, during his freshman year at Towson University on March 5, 2000. It was just weeks before his 19th birthday.

A series of nonprofit efforts have spun off from his death, all a tribute to his impact on others during his short life. His parents, Mike and Deb Kepferle, established what is now the National Meningitis Association, a group that raises awareness about vaccinations for meningitis. The organization has managed to have vaccination laws changed in 34 states.

In addition, the couple established the Pat Kepferle Friendship Memorial Scholarship, which is available to college-bound students from St. Mary’s County.

Now, a group of Patrick’s friends — including Merritt and DeCarlo — have created Taps Community Brotherhood, which is designed to offer and assist youth-oriented community programs. ‘‘Tap’s Community Brotherhood’s goal is to achieve improvement in youth health education, community involvement and volunteerism through sports, scholarships and other similar endeavors; and to provide a living example of the brotherhood that is created between friends and families who have lost loved ones, and are thus committed to common charitable activities in honor of them,” the group’s mission statement says.

DeCarlo noted that in addition to remembering Patrick, TCB was started out of respect to the entire Kepferle family and how they’ve handled Patrick’s loss and how they’ve cared about Patrick’s friends. ‘‘Part [of the reason we started TCB] is we really love the family so much,” DeCarlo said.

The group’s name comes from a quote Pat Kepferle submitted for his senior year high school yearbook, ‘‘The times that seem to last the shortest, last the longest.” He signed the quote ‘‘Tap Elrefpek,” his name spelled backward. To ‘‘Tap,” his friends added Community Brotherhood as a nod to the brotherhood that is created between friends and families who have lost loved ones.

‘‘We wanted to start something to celebrate Pat’s life,” said Merritt, the president of the group’s board, who now lives in Clemson, S.C.

‘‘It’s a brotherhood among friends,” said DeCarlo of California. ‘‘We’re just trying to bring programs here that can give kids something to do ... and help other groups trying to make a difference.”

Actually, the group has existed in a non-official way since Kepferle’s death. A group gathered at Kepferle’s fraternity at Towson to remember him. In the years following, anniversary gatherings were held annually at the Kepferle home. On the fifth-year anniversary, friends and family held a fundraiser at the Hollywood firehouse. They raised approximately $10,000 — half went to National Meningitis Association and half went to the memorial scholarship.

‘‘Then last year, we sat down and said we want to do more than what we have been doing,” Merritt said. Approximately 40 friends and family expressed interest in the project.

The new group is governed by a nine-member board. In addition to Merritt and DeCarlo, TCB’s board includes Kaci Kepferle of Washington, D.C., and Megan Kepferle of Baltimore, Patrick’s sisters; Donny and Alexis Gray of Lexington Park; Alex David of New York City; John Croisetiere of the Washington, D.C. area; and Jessica Sarratt of Lexington Park.

The emphasis of Taps Community Brotherhood is more on celebrating Patrick’s life than a reminder of how he died. This emphasis is particularly important for some members of the group. Kaci, Patrick’s older sister, said she had tried to get involved with the National Meningitis Association when her parents started getting it organized. ‘‘But it was hard for me,” she said. The group was a constant reminder of how her brother died.

TCB is different. ‘‘It’s almost therapeutic,” she said. ‘‘It’s been a lot of fun.”

And fun was what Patrick was all about. TCB’s inaugural event is a reminder of how much he loved playing basketball. ‘‘He loved having fun with anyone, often playing three-on-three basketball whenever he could,” a biography included in the TCB Web site says.

So, TCB will host a May Madness three-on-three basketball tournament for middle and high school students on May 19 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The hope is to make the tournament an annual event.

‘‘Pat’s friends were his life and the fact that they are trying to give something to our community in his memory means more to us than I think they can even know,” Mike Kepferle wrote in an e-mail. ‘‘We may have lost our son, and that will always hurt. But our family has grown incredibly through all of Pat’s friends who stay close to us wherever their lives take them.”

E-mail Susan Craton at scraton@somd-news.com.