Community helping family of slain McEachern football star

By Alexis Stevens and Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A day after learning about the death of an 18-year-old football star, members of the McEachern High School community wasted no time coming to the aid of his family.

"I'm out riding around right now, trying to find a new place for this family to live," Jim Dorsey, the school's athletic director said Friday afternoon.

Dorsey said the entire football team plans to help move the family into a new home once it is found. Rajaan was a rarity and mature well beyond his years, he said

Bennett was shot in his family’s home in Powder Springs by his mother’s former boyfriend, Clifton Steger, who then killed himself.

Donations and calls offering help for Rajaan Bennett's family have been coming in, Dorsey said. A fund has been established to help the family with funeral expenses and moving costs.

“They rent and she [Bennett’s mother] doesn’t want to return there," said Beverly Postell, who is managing the endowment fund and donations for the family after Thursday's murder-suicide. "There is a need to help defer costs of this funeral and we will need some money to relocate this family.”

Some funeral services have been donated. But there are expenses still uncovered, Postell said. She said she has not yet tallied the checks that have come in so far.

For now, Postell said, donations should be sent to the McEachern Endowment Fund at the school, located at 2400 New MacLand Road, Powder Springs, 30127. She said checks should include a notation that the donation is for the Bennett family.

Any remaining monies will be put into a fund for Bennett's special needs brother, Dorsey said. "If Rajaan could poke his head down from heaven and talk to us, he'd want us to take care of his brother."