Alpha Phi reconnects and mobilizes to turn heartbreak into a lasting legacy

The most energetic of Mollie (’09) and Jesse Merkel’s four children, 8-year-old Fletcher Alexander Merkel would be asked to stay seated every night at the dinner table five times before finishing his meal. He couldn’t wait to go play outside and loved being around people.

“The pediatrician would always say, ‘This is the happiest baby I’ve seen,’” said Mollie, a Social Work major. “He really brought people together, because he was into sports, music, art and biking, and was just able to build connections with a lot of different people.”

On Aug. 27, 2025, that light within Fletcher was snuffed out when he was shot and killed during a morning Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Since the shooting, a network of support came from Mollie’s sorority, Alpha Phi, and those 20-year friendships founded at Madison — in Alpha Phi terms, “the friendships formed in the springtime of my youth.” In person and afar, her sisters have helped anyway they can, sending care packages, hosting her back on the East Coast, and sharing memories and stories of Fletcher on larger platforms. Overwhelmed with gratitude as an army of Alpha Phi Dukes lift her up, Mollie also has a rotation of sisters flying out — one weekend every month — to visit her home in south Minneapolis.

Alpha Phi’s are sisters for life, supporting one another through every life stage and assisting each other in times of need. To honor Fletcher and help Mollie’s family, her sorority contacted the Alpha Phi national executive office to organize a Forget Me Not Grant. The grant is designed to provide temporary, short-term financial assistance for an event or unforeseeable circumstance such as an alumna facing an urgent family crisis. It is a capped, $2,500 fund available to members that sisters and nonmembers can contribute to. Donations poured in from Mollie’s individual sisters, her JMU Alpha Phi alumnae group and Alpha Phi nationals.

The aid from Alpha Phi didn’t stop there. The JMU sorority sisters also provided food for the meal train, organized fee-free donations directly to Mollie, worked with individual employers for donation-matching, and organized other fundraisers in their own communities around the country.

“There are no words to describe how deeply this loss has cut across our JMU Alpha Phi chapter,” said sorority sister Emily Branch (’08), an Art major. “Women. Moms. Sisters. Many of us haven’t seen or spoken to one another in years, but our bond has never broken.” 

As time passed, while moving from Colorado to Minnesota and raising a family, Mollie had lost touch with her little sister in Alpha Phi, Jamie McGaha (’09), until Fletcher died. “After this happened, she’s been one of the most consistent, constant people checking in on me, and our relationship has completely rebuilt,” Mollie said. “She’s also reconnected with all the other girls.”

Tragedy had struck Alpha Phi once before, on Aug. 26, 2015, when sorority sister and news reporter Alison Parker (’12), a Media Arts and Design major, was fatally shot during a live television interview.

As a social worker, Mollie uses her platform to encourage others to move their feet for positive action.

In recognition of Fletcher’s Jan. 10 birthday, she created Fletcherfest as a celebration of his favorite things. Rescue puppies, temporary tattoos, a bouncy house and reptile show took over the auditorium of his school. In solidarity, more than 60 attendees received permanent arrow tattoos from a tattoo artist. “Fletcher means ‘arrow maker,’” explained Mollie, a counselor at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis.

For the Merkels, Fletcherfest was also an opportunity to establish a scholarship in their second-born’s name. At the event, they introduced the Fletcher Merkel Memorial Endowment Fund, which provides access for two students to receive an Annunciation Catholic School education from pre-K through eighth grade. Friends, families, supporters and Alpha Phi sisters rallied, raising more than $100,000 in tuition assistance.
 
Fletcher’s life touched so many others. Alpha Phi keeps his name and soul alive by living with zeal, joy and inclusivity as Fletcher would have, remembering how he lived, not the tragic circumstances of his passing. Most of the inner-circle sorority sisters also got tattooed, matching the arrow on the ring finger of Mollie’s left hand, as a mark of their commitment to her and her family in remembering Fletcher.

“Mollie is kindness itself. She and Jesse do amazingly sharing their son’s spirit,” said sorority sister Rachel Northridge (’11), a Communication Studies major. “And we amplify them, happy to share wonderful stories about a wonderful child.”