The Scholarship Announcement

It is always one of the highlights of our year-awarding the scholarships in honor of Ryan, Bobby, Eric and David to the very worthy recipients. This year we awarded scholarships eight, nine, ten and eleven at Lafayette’s annual Senior Awards Night. We explained the meaning of the fund, how it came to be and its purpose.

We also invite the parents of the boys to join us on stage to hand the scholarship to their son’s recipient. While we always get such a warm welcome from the Lafayette community, the applause this year in acknowledgement of these families, the boys and our fund was truly tremendous. It lasted longer than we expected and even climbed to a loud crescendo that meant so very much to everyone involved.

Please see below for the text of our address. As always, all of this is made possible by your generous support, of which we are and will continue to remain deeply appreciative.

Ryan Trigg proudly served his country. Eric Gabel was a father. Bobby Maessen, the prom king, was just as well regarded on his college campus. And David Meyers was newly married. Four different young men, four different paths taken, but they all had two things in common. All four were members of Lafayette High School’s Class of 2002, and all four died before their 25th birthdays. Three years ago we formed the Class of 2002 Memorial Scholarship Fund with a mission to honor the memory of our friends and classmates through giving back to our high school.

Our class raises money throughout the entire year to benefit the fund. We hold a trivia night every summer and a happy hour every holiday season, and the parents of the boys, Rich and I and Lafayette faculty come together each spring to select the coming year's scholarship recipients. We are always in awe at the quality of the applications we receive; we know the recipients are hard-working, smart and caring individuals who will honor the spirit in which the award was given and make an impact on their college communities, just as they've had an impact at Lafayette.

And now we'd like to award the scholarship in honor of Bobby Maessen to Shiphie Philipose.

The scholarship in honor of Eric Gabel is awarded to Andrew Fevig.

The scholarship in honor of Ryan Trigg is awarded to Sara Dao.

And the scholarship in honor of David Meyers is awarded to Gina Farinella.