Get Over To Pedals Smoothies & Juice Bar, 284 York St. By 9 p.m. To Support Dudchik Fund

NEW HAVEN, CT —The Pedals Smoothie & Juice Bar York Street location is open until 9 p.m. Thursday, so there's still time to swing by to make a purchase and at the same time, help support the SUN Scholars Robert & Anthony Dudchik Memorial Fund.

The Dudchik brothers, Robert, 22, and Anthony, 19, were killed in a car crash in Branford earlier this month.

Placed in foster care by the state department of Children and Families when they were very young, Tom and Nora Dudchik of East Haddam became their foster parents, and then, their real parents when the couple adopted the siblings.

As a way to both honor the brothers, SUN Scholars created a fund to establish a program that "will provide foster and adoptive youth involved with SUN Scholars Inc. the chance to travel and see the world, much in light to honor the dreams and ambitions of traveling the globe that Robert pursued in his lifetime."

SUN Scholars executive director Christopher Scott said that Robert "was one of my first students."
"He was a friend, pillar of our community, and an inspiring, gentle soul to anyone who met him. It was genuinely impossible to sit in a room with Rob and not love his spirit and energy. Everyone who knew him felt the same - Rob was loved by all."

Robert, who had just started a career as a flight attendant for Avelo Airlines, based at Tweed New Haven Airport, loved travel.

SUN Scholars, of which the bothers were a part, provides "academic, career, and advocacy resources to adoptive and foster youth pursuing post-secondary educational and career ambitions."

The idea for Pedals Smoothies to get involved came from Veronika Petkovich, manager of the Durham location. A close friend to the Dudchik brothers, her brother Donovan was Robert's best friend since second grade. Robert often vacationed with their family in Rhode Island. And Donovan was not only very close to Robert, he was also like a "big brother" to Anthony.

"When everything happened, I knew I wanted to do something for them," Veronika told Patch. She spoke to Pedals Smoothie and Juice Bar owner Katie Hughes-Nelson about her idea. "She was 100 percent on board."

SUN Scholars' Scott stopped at the Durham Pedals location Thursday, Veronika said.

"We had a good chat about Robert," she said. "It was healing to hear someone I didn't know talk about Robert in the same way I knew him ...about his character and how he was just an incredible person."

Veronika said that for the past 15 years, "Robert was always around. Anthony, too."

She said that Robert would often accompany the family on summer trips to Charlestown, RI. "That's how close they were," she said.

Donovan is "devastated, but hanging in there," she said. Visiting the Dudchik's to "help them" has helped him process the loss.

From Donovan's Instagram:

Veronika said it was common knowledge that the brothers were fostered and then adopted. And said that what she and others found "really beautiful" was when Robert advocated for foster siblings to remain together before the Connecticut General Assembly.

And so raising money for the SUN Scholars fund in their name made sense.

And if one doesn't make it to York Street before 9 p.m., click here to donate to the Robert & Anthony Dudchik SUN Memorial Fund.

Read more about Robert and Anthony Dudchik >>

Fatal Crash Stole Lives Of Brothers Who'd Just Begun Life On Their Own

Adopted at ages 7 and 4, Dudchik brothers Robert, 22, and Anthony, 19, couldn't have been loved more by their parents and countless friends.