Brown Scholarship

[kicker]

BEAUMONT - Brad Brown will never know if his daughter would have earned a scholarship to play soccer at Lamar University.

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He at least knows now that someone will always play there for her.

The Lamar University Foundation, a tax-exempt corporation that maintains endowments and other assets on behalf of the university, has all but completed arrangements for a soccer scholarship in the name of Ashley Brown, one of two West Brook students who died in a bus accident March 29.

"We have not worked out all the details yet," said Janice Trammell, executive director of the LU Foundation. "We're waiting to get with (the) athletics (department) to tie things up. But basically, it's a done deal."

The unfinished details lie in exactly how the scholarship is assessed, Trammell said.

The school will first award the scholarship in the 2007 fall semester, which will coincide with the first season of women's soccer at Lamar University.

Lamar still must figure out if it will hand the scholarship to a walk-on, who plays but receives no help with tuition, or another student who would already play soccer on an athletic scholarship.

Or the beneficiary could wind up somewhere in the middle. Some athletes in the so-called smaller sports (in other words, not football or basketball) receive partial athletic scholarships and must find other ways to cover the rest of their bill.

That's where the Ashley Brown scholarship, backed by the Alicia Bonura and Ashley Brown Memorial Scholarship Fund, could come in.

This much, Trammell said, is certain: The Ashley Brown Memorial Scholarship will not be year-to-year. It is permanent.

"The purpose of an endowment is that it doesn't spend off the principal," Trammell said. "The money continues to be invested, so it'll be here forever."

The same is true of another scholarship in the name of Alicia Bonura - the second girl lost in the West Brook bus accident. It will go to a student in Lamar's mechanical engineering program since Bonura, a senior at West Brook, had planned to major in mechanical engineering at Texas A&M.

"There's been a huge outpouring for this," Trammell said of the fund which underwrites the two scholarships. "We get donations every day. ... we're definitely not going to put a cap on it."

The fund began shortly after the accident, when some of Mike Bonura's co-workers got together to discuss how they could do something for the family.

Eventually, hordes of other donors surfaced.

An administrator at West Brook helped organize a memorial golf tournament that will take place this fall. The proceeds will go toward the fund.

Other high school soccer teams and clubs contributed, as well as friends and relatives of the two families.

About $30,000 sits in the fund today.

"Ashley's family and friends look forward to providing a scholarship opportunity for a deserving student-athlete, beginning in 2007," Brad Brown said in an e-mail to The Enterprise.

"Because the community responded so generously to the tragic accident that claimed our precious Ashley, hers is a legacy of hope."

This is great! I am so sorry to the parents of the girls. If you have children, let them know how much you love them every day!!! Cherish the time you have with them also.

[DP#1FAN]

My prayers go out to the family.

[Guest Anonymous]

great

[trout]

Hope this helps heals the wounds. You deserve and have my sympathy and prayers.