"I don't want to see this happen to another person," said Nichole Schmidt, Gabby Petito's mother, in announcing a new foundation in her daughter's name. The organization will support other groups that try to find missing persons and prevent domestic violence, ABC reports. Petito was missing for weeks before her body was discovered in Wyoming in September. "I know that we can't save everybody, but I think that this—just awareness alone is giving people the strength," Schmidt said in an interview on Good Morning America. The Gabby Petito Foundation was created by the slain 22-year-old's parents and stepparents.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline, one of the three organizations that shared a $50,000 donation from the new nonprofit, said it has helped more 300 people who contacted it after going to the foundation's website. "We want survivors to know that they aren't alone and that there are amazing organizations ready to help," Schmidt said, per WTSP. Jim Schmidt, Petito's stepfather, added, "If we can even be a small piece of support network for somebody else in a similar situation and try to just help them get through it, that's it goes a long way." (More Gabby Petito stories.)