STAFF MEMBERS AT COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE START SCHOLARSHIP FUND IN MEMORY OF CARI FARVER
By Tim Johnson | The Daily Nonpareil
May 15, 2019
A group of staff members at the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office helped launch a scholarship fund this spring in memory of a Council Bluffs woman whose story they can’t forget.
The Cari Farver Memorial Scholarship Fund was established at the Pottawattamie County Community Fund, said Donna Dostal, PCCF president and CEO.
Farver, who was from Macedonia, is remembered as a vibrant, talented and caring person, she said. Her friends and family remember her “courageous spirit” and “love of life” fondly
She was a lifelong learner, well-versed in a dozen programming languages, according to a press release from PCCF. She first attended Iowa Western Community College in 1995 to improve her typing skills, then returned to earn an associate degree in May 2009. She secured her dream job as a programmer analyst as she refreshed her knowledge with information technology courses at IWCC in spring 2012.
Sadly, Farver’s life ended too soon. She disappeared on Nov. 13, 2012, and, despite an elaborate and extended effort to cover up the crime, her killer was arrested in December 2016, convicted in August 2017 and sent to prison for the rest of her life.
Farver’s indomitable spirit lives on in the hearts and minds of those who knew her best, the PCCF release stated.
The scholarship fund is a tribute to her passion for helping others.
“Establishing a scholarship fund in Cari’s memory is a perfect example of how a tragedy can be turned into an impactful gift for future generations,” Dostal said.
One of several goals for this fund is to reclaim the narrative surrounding her life and honor her kind and giving nature, the press release stated.
“Supporting this fund, and its goal of a permanent endowment, means ensuring Cari Farver, an innocent victim, is never forgotten,” said Anthony Kava, digital forensics and technology administrator at the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, who led efforts to establish the fund. “It means preserving Cari’s legacy of helping others. It’s part of the answer to how we, as a community, can strive to ensure that a victim is remembered, rather than the person who harmed them.
“This fund can’t deliver justice, but it can provide a student with an interest in technology, like Cari, with something that goes beyond just financial assistance: an example of compassion and how precious life is,” Kava said.