Foundation started in Jorelys Rivera's name

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By Andria Simmons

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jocelyn Rivera, mother of a 7-year-old girl murdered in late 2011 in Canton, is fulfilling her wish of creating an organization to help parents handle similar crises.

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Family photo 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera of Canton.

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"That's something that I dreamed of because I think a foundation would help [provide] moral and financial support to other families suffering like me," Rivera told Mundo Hispanico this week.

The nonprofit will bear the name of the deceased child, Jorelys Rivera. The idea was presented to Rivera during an event Wednesday at the El Amigo restaurant in Atlanta.

Pro-immigrant activist Joe Mariscal and members of Conjunto Río Verde, a local group of Mexican Norteño music, conceived of the foundation and asked Rivera if she would like to be the first president.

This event was the first step; the organizers still need to define where and how to operate the foundation.

As the band performed a song composed for Jorelys, her mother cried listening to the melody. One of her younger daughters wiped away Rivera's tears with the sleeve of her sweater and comforted her with hugs and kisses.

The band asked permission from Rivera to record and promote its song to raise money for the foundation. She nodded.

Ryan Brunn, who was a groundskeeper at River Ridge Apartments in Canton where the Riveras lived, pleaded guilty last month in Cherokee County to enticing the 7-year-old into a vacant unit on Dec. 2 to molest her. He then cut her throat and beat her over the head with a roller skate, because he feared she would go home and tell her family. He discarded her body in a trash compactor at the complex.

Brunn killed himself in prison two days after his guilty plea. The GBI is still investigating the suicide.

- Mundo Hispanico reporter Mario Guevara contributed to this article.