Nutrition First organizes fundraiser for Illinois woman

Sept. 25, 2019 | Danielle Eaton
DanielleE@thereminder.com

AGAWAM – The Agawam community is coming together once again to raise money for a woman in need. The woman, however, doesn’t live in town or even in Massachusetts, but in Illinois.

Illinois State Trooper, 33-year-old Nicholas Hopkins, was shot and killed in the line of duty on Aug. 23. While serving a warrant at a home. He left behind his wife, Whitney Hopkins, and three young children all under the age of five. Owner of Nutrition First in Agawam, Michelle Fairman, knows Whitney through the wellness company Herbalife.

“We became really good friends over the last probably nine months,” she told Reminder Publishing. “She was a huge part of challenges that we would host, online fun things, and she was always like the person involved. And Nick was very involved.”

Fairman said when she heard about Nick’s death she was heartbroken and wanted to do anything she could to help, whether it was emotional or financial support.

“When we heard what had happened, we immediately, the whole team, everyone just devastated, devastated. Immediately we’re like what can we do to help her and they have four-year-old twins and a one-year-old daughter, who just turned one,” Fairman said. “So what can we do to help her and financial sometimes isn’t even what it is. She knows we’re here for her, so we wanted to do something special and so we did host a fundraiser on Sunday, which was the 8th.”

The fundraiser, Fairman said, was held at Nutrition First and included raffle prizes along with a special tea and shake in honor of Nick. Both people who know and don’t know Whitney came out to support her and help Nutrition First raise money for family.

“The donations we got from the community were from people that knew Whitney through social media, and people who didn’t know Whitney. So people donated raffle items, people came in and purchased the special tea,” Fairman said. “Nick’s nickname was the Gator, so we made a gator tea and a gator shake. People just came in and supported.” Fairman said the community was incredibly generous and donated raffle prizes such as a pair of Celtics tickets, passes to Six Flags, a facial, oil changes, shaker cups, gift cards to restaurants, gift cards to Nutrition First, and several hand-made items from members of the community. In total, Nutrition First was able to raise about $700 for Whitney and her family. The money, Fairman said, “will go out to Whitney to take care of her kids.”

The owner of Elite Nutrition, a tea and shake bar similar to Nutrition First that recenlty opened in East Longmeadow, also knows Whitney and held a fundraiser. All week long, Elite Nutrition, sold raffle tickets for prizes.

Owner of Elite Nutrition, Crystal Jimenez, said, “I had actually met Whitney a year and a half ago and her and I just kinda clicked. When I was brought this opportunity to do the fundraiser for her I just thought it was an amazing idea.”

Jimenez said, “I know Michelle was doing a fundraiser with the teas, so what I decided to do was I reached out to different people and just see if people wanted to donate stuff and I was going to run a raffle.” The raffle she said had “an amazing, amazing turnout” and raised $600.

Fairman said they aren’t the only people working to raise money for Whitney and her family, though.

“I know there are some of these nutrition spots in Florida that also had really good ties with Whitney that are doing the same thing. So I don’t have numbers from them. So definitely a lot of people really just supporting her and her three little kids,” she said. “It’s unfortunately going to be a whole new life and trying to figure out how to manage all that and our heart breaks for her.”

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