Two new scholarship funds have been created to celebrate the lives of Marion natives – one cut short and one lived fully. According to Brad Bebout, president of Marion Community Foundation, these new funds memorialize SSG Shannon M. Smith and long-time nurse Marge Sorreles Davies.
Created by the friends and family, the SSG Shannon M. Smith “No Fear” Scholarship Fund memorializes the only soldier from Marion to die in Iraq. A 1997 graduate of Marion Harding High School, Smith (pictured) was killed in action on September 8, 2009, in Baji, Iraq, while fighting in the Global War on Terror.
A scholarship will be awarded annually, beginning in 2011, to a senior from either Big Walnut or Marion Harding high schools, in alternating years, who participated in interscholastic wrestling. Smith, a wrestler from the age of six, had planned throughout his childhood to go to college to pursue wrestling. Shortly after high school, he changed his plans and joined the US Army.
According to his widow, Cassie Smith, although Shannon did not like war, he felt it was necessary to protect our country and all that it represents. “Smith was more than a soldier,” she said. “He was a dedicated husband, a loving son, a devoted friend and a loyal battle buddy in his 12th year of military service when he made the ultimate sacrifice.”
To honor SSG Shannon M Smith, his scholarship will be awarded to a student in the upper 50 percent of his or her graduating class who shows courage, determination, self-less service, honor, dignity, respect and above all, “No Fear.”
The selection committee for the No Fear Scholarship will include a relative of Shannon M. Smith and the wrestling coach and an administrator from Marion Harding and Big Walnut high schools.
The Marge Sorreles Davies Memorial Scholarship Fund was created in her memory by her husband, Bobb Davies, and daughter, former Harding Home director Melinda Gilpin. The scholarship will support area nursing students and begin making awards in 2011.
Davies (pictured) passed in February at the age of 82. A Marion native, she was a graduate of the former Green Camp High School, the White Cross School of Nursing, and The Ohio State University. Her nursing career spanned 50+ years and included 15 years as director of nursing for the Marion County Health Department, as well as employment at Marion General and the former MedCenter hospitals.
To be eligible for the Davies Scholarship, applicants must be a senior or graduate of a high school located in Marion County and be ranked in the upper 25th percentile of his or her high school graduating class or have at least a 3.0 grade point average, if in college. The scholarship will support those pursuing a Bachelor of Science Degree in nursing. Special consideration will be given to seniors and graduates of Elgin High School.
According to Gilpin, “I told my Dad that there was no better way to honor Mom than with a scholarship; and, no better place to do that than at Marion Community Foundation.”
MCF serves a steward to 125 charitable funds, 45 of which are scholarships. The Foundation holds its Scholarship Program each spring and, this year, awarded more than $91,000 to 74 local scholars. Additional information on scholarships and other philanthropic funds at MCF may be obtained by calling 387-9704 during standard business hours or visiting the Foundation’s website at www.marioncommunityfoundation.org.
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