Friends and family of Keith D. McHeffey founded the KDM Foundation following his death on Sept. 11, 2001. The foundation raises funds to support community projects like the new playground at the Dean Porter School in Rumson, carried out in partnership with the Friends of Dean Porter School. Children yet to be born or too young to remember Sept. 11, 2001, will help keep Keith D. McHeffey’s spirit alive as they play on the new Dean Porter School equipment, donated by the KDM Foundation in honor of the victim of the terrorist attacks.
McHeffey, 31 at the time, was a Rumson native and an equities trader for Cantor Fitzgerald in NewYork and in the process of opening up a new office with his boss in Shrewsbury. But the building wasn’t ready on time. Delays had pushed it back a few weeks, forcing McHeffey, a Monmouth Beach resident, to continue working in the city.
“They really weren’t supposed to be there, as were many people,” said Sherry McHeffey, Keith’s mother. “When this happened everybody, of course the whole country, was devastated but these guys just picked up the ball immediately and set this up,” she said.
Keith D. McHeffey These guys — the core group of friends Keith shared his life with, growing up through his years at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, playing sports, and spending time with after college and through their adult years, including weddings, his mother recalled.
“We set out to keep Keith’s memory alive, and not only Keith. These towns here lost a lot of guys and we lost a lot of friends,” said foundation board member Dan Kelly. “Keith just happened to be one of our best friends in a small core group of guys.”
For KDM’s latest project, the foundation partnered with the Friends of the Dean Porter School, an organization run by Rumson parents whose children attend the Rumson elementary school, to install a new playground.
According to member Carolyn Cashion, the KDM Foundation got the project started with a $20,000 donation and saw it through to the finish as the fiscal agent.
“Carolyn reached out to us and we thought it was a very neat little project,” said Gregg Kennedy, foundation member. “Keith was very outdoorsy, loved sports, fishing, being on the boat, the beach, stuff like that. We try to strive toward that.”
According to Kennedy, approximately $80,000 was raised in total.
“Itwas through word of mouth that we received very generous donations from the community,” said Cashion, who estimated the playground installation to cost more than $60,000. The remaining funds, she said, was used for picnic tables, benches and chess tables.
Kelly emphasized the foundation’s persistence on dedicating most projects to all of the local victims.
“The foundation is really there to support the community and help people out in an area where they can’t raise the funds but it’s going to improve the lifestyle of the kids and for the community in general,” said Sherry McHeffey.
Past projects include the complete overhaul of Piping Rock Field in 2002 and two $2,500 scholarships for Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School students, one male and one female graduating scholar-athlete.
“I give the scholarship every year,” said McHeffey’s mother, “and I always want to emphasize that this is not just, you know, where one man started it and it goes on. This is a group effort, a testimony to their friendship.”
The foundation’s greatest fundraising event is the annual St. Patrick’s Day 3-mile run at Donovan’s Reef in Sea Bright. Kelly said it raises anywhere from $15,000- $25,000, and upwards of 900 people participate in the run.
“They [community] have always been willing to give, and people to this day, 10 years later, are still making contributions so it’s not something that was a fly-by couple years and then it just faded out,” said McHeffey.
“It’s still going very strong and all the credit should be given to the young men who founded it and are still running it. They’ve done a great job and have been wonderful friends to Keith and to the community.”
Both Kennedy and Kelly reflected that same praise onto the community.
“It’s just been great and overwhelming. We’re very appreciative of the community and the people, the friends of friends, that have supported us through the years,” Kennedy said.
McHeffey, Kennedy and Kelly all share a devotion to the foundation and its giving. They’ve made it a lasting habit, driven by a spirit impossible to forget.
“Wemiss him everyday, not just on the anniversary. It’s always in the back of your mind. We talk about him almost everyday,” said McHeffey.
“He had a great sense of humor so we’ll be like ‘Oh, I can imagine what Keith would have to say about that!’”
She recalled a story in which one of Keith’s friends had said at the funeral service, “You know, when you start a new job and the bosses are always there and everybody’s afraid of them? Keith was the type who after a few weeks, would be calling them by their first names and they’d be joking around.”
Kelly saidKeith had a great life and always made it a priority to keep the guys together.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how funny he was: out-loud funny and the driest sense of humor ever.”
McHeffey said it’s comforting to think about howmany people have helped the foundation.
“I just know, wherever he is, he’s very proud of thework and I know he’s honored by this. Imean, he would think, ‘This is just great.’ They all came through for him in the way he would have done for them.”