{"id":280561,"date":"2026-02-12T14:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/280561\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T14:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:09:13","slug":"scholarship-planned-to-honour-boy-killed-on-canterbury-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/280561\/","title":{"rendered":"Scholarship planned to honour boy killed on Canterbury road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A fundraising page has been launched to create a scholarship in memory of 10-year-old Canterbury boy Alex Bennett.<\/p>\n<p>Alex was hit by a car and killed just outside his Leeston Rd home last Wednesday while he was checking the mail.<\/p>\n<p>Adding to the tragedy, Selwyn Times was told the driver of the vehicle involved was a mother travelling with her own children.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/givealittle.co.nz\/cause\/in-loving-memory-of-alex-bennett-to-honour?fbclid=IwY2xjawP1zPxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEer27K4dgSNjraMxMJXGVwrzFiPfZhZsLB1ap_veWo2szoVR5_vZIYK8Kn0G0_aem_DW7LdCcscKWL1eygCYTBWw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Givealittle page<\/a> has been set up to support Alex\u2019s family and to establish a scholarship fund in his name.<\/p>\n<p>Created by Mary Batchelar, a parent at Springston School which Alex attended, the page had raised $11,759 by Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlex was a beautiful, clever beyond words, amazingly kind boy who shared a special bond with mine,\u201d Batchelar said on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe loved Minecraft and science and talking about all sorts of things.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are grieving tremendously for the loss of his life and for the pain and devastation his family are feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A celebration of Alex\u2019s life for the school community was planned to be held at Springston Community Hall at 4pm today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe family has expressed how much they appreciate the incredible outpouring of love and support from our school wh\u0101nau. This is a time to stand together and reflect on the beautiful light that Alex was in our kura (school),\u201d a statement on the school\u2019s social media page said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we navigate this time together, please remember to hold each other close and reach out if you or your tamariki need extra support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Police said they could provide no further information while the investigation into Alex\u2019s death was ongoing, and victim support had been in contact with those involved.<\/p>\n<p>The Givealittle page for Alex\u2019s family can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/givealittle.co.nz\/cause\/in-loving-memory-of-alex-bennett-to-honour?fbclid=IwY2xjawP1zPxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEer27K4dgSNjraMxMJXGVwrzFiPfZhZsLB1ap_veWo2szoVR5_vZIYK8Kn0G0_aem_DW7LdCcscKWL1eygCYTBWw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fundraising page has been launched to create a scholarship in memory of 10-year-old Canterbury boy Alex Bennett.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-280561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}