FAIRVIEW, Oregon — It’s been five years since the deadly shooting at Reynolds High School.
Emilio Hoffman, who was killed in that shooting, would have turned 20 years old this year. His legacy lives on, thanks to the nonprofit Emilio Inc. that was created in his memory to help others.
On Friday, the fourth annual Emilio Inc. community rummage sale kicked off at 22565 NE Halsey in Fairview.
“It's a lot of work,” said Jennifer Hoffman, Emilio’s mother. “Everything for sale is donated from people in the community and they know where the money goes.”
The rummage sale raises money to give needy kids gift cards for back-to-school shopping. Donated items that don’t sell will be donated to charity.
“One of his favorite things to do was to go back-to-school shopping for clothes,” said Hoffman.
She said the first back-to-school season after Emilio was killed was especially hard.
“I was so heartbroken that I pulled out everything from the garage and had a yard sale,” Hoffman said. “I called up all his friends and said, ‘Let me take you school shopping. I need to do this.'”
Besides the rummage sale, Emilio Inc. is also raising money to bring Challenge Day, an anti-bullying program into area schools that can’t afford it.
“It’s the most amazing, powerful program for teenagers that I've ever been part of and it changes your life,” Hoffman said.
To do that, Emilio Inc. is raffling off a custom Victory Hammer motorcycle assembled by PJ's Garage and Draggin Pipe. It was on display at Bike Night in downtown Gladstone on Thursday night.
“It's something that the kids need, so we're going to try to raise some extra money so we can get Challenge Day back,” said Emilio Inc. President-Elect, Randy Olson. “If we have to fund it by ourselves then we'll do the best we can do.”
There are 300 raffle tickets available for $100 each, and they can be purchased here. The drawing will be held on August 31.
Hoffman believes all of this good being done through Emilio Inc. will make a difference, much like the work her son started to do but never got to complete.
“Emilio loved to help people and he lived by example,” Hoffman said. “He’s still incredibly missed.”