Family, friends memorialize Kremp at tree-planting ceremony

Charles Couch
Staff Writer

Friends, family and faculty planted new life last Saturday in celebration of Catlin Kremp, a VCU student who died on a VCU Outdoor Adventure Program sponsored trip to Colorado in August.

More than 50 students attended the symbolic planting of a pomegranate tree outside of the university’s Outing Rental Center. The service was held by the OAP. After VCU faculty members, students and Kremp’s stepmother spoke, Kremp’s family shoveled dirt over the memorial tree’s roots.

“I think the tree planting is fitting for her. I definitely saw her eating pomegranates quite a bit,” said OAP Assistant Director Joey Parent. “This program is kind of in honor of her. She’s always going be a part of what we’re doing here.”

Parent, Kremp and eight other students were in Colorado on a four-day trip through the OAP, university officials said. She fell roughly 200 feet from a rock outcrop and died instantly, according to a press release from authorities in La Plata County, Colo.

Kremp was a student worker in the program, Parent said.

“My base memory from [the trip] was just the whole time she was saying she never wanted to go back to Richmond,” Parent said. “She just loved the place so much, and it was so beautiful she couldn’t believe that we were there.”

Kremp’s family and friends remembered her through speeches and poems as someone with passion, determination and as a role model, despite being just 18 at the time of her death.

Kremp’s father, Jeffery Kremp, said VCU was a special place to his daughter.

“VCU was her first choice and only choice. Joey and the whole Outdoor Adventure Program meant so much to her,” he said. “She would come home and really just tell us the great memories she had.”

In addition to the pomegranate tree, Kremp’s family opened a scholarship under her name at VCU which, after several functions and fundraisers, has reached $12,250, Jeffery Kremp said.

Kremp received many scholarships during her short time at VCU, her step-mother Page Kremp said.

“As her family, we were so honored that our child would be recognized that way – so that’s part of the reason we felt that a scholarship in Caitlin’s honor was very important,” Page said. “I think it’s going to be perpetual, it’s going to help a lot of people and that’s what we’re all about.”

To watch more about Kremp’s tree-planting ceremony, check out The CT News Report.