Harp, Saunders awarded first ever Sarah Brown Memorial Scholarship
Pair get $1,000 scholarships
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

Jason Thompson/Gulf Breeze News And the winners are Justin Harp and Dale Rae Saunders were the recipients of the inaugural Sarah Brown Memorial Scholarship. Both received $1,000 toward their college education.

Gulf Breeze High seniors Dale Rae Saunders, 17 and Justin Harp, also 17, have not been as busy as other area seniors counting down the days until graduation. Like many of their peers, the aforementioned upperclassmen were too busy completing community or charity projects to be concerned with the approaching summer months.

Saunders and Harp recently received scholarship money in honor of the late Sarah Brown and other GBHS students recently raised money for dental surgery from Operation Smile.

Saunders and Harp each received $1,000 from the Sarah Brown Optimist Club Scholarship in honor of the teen who was killed in a car accident in February. The two seniors were surprised to be awarded the scholarships because they helped get the program started after Brown's death.

"Honestly, I didn't know it was coming to me," Saunders said. "It is an honor. Sarah was an awesome person."

The pair of seniors are both charter members of the Gulf Breeze High School (GBHS) Junior Optimist Club, also known as the Octagon club. Brown was also a member of the voluntary community service group and the scholarship was designed to reward students that possess her infectiously good-spirited work ethic and positive attitude.

"The memorial scholarship shall be awarded to a member of the Gulf Breeze High School Junior Optimist Club, (male or female, with these qualities: a student that is humble about [their] many strengths; yet open to suggestion when looking to overcome obstacles. [They] should be willing to see the goodness in others from all walks of life and individualistic in [their] approach toward friendships.

[They] should possess a strong sense of [their] unique self and be enthusiastic about the wonder of the road ahead," GBHS English teacher and club sponsor Andrea Faklis wrote in an email.

Kristen Brown-Sanders said she was pleased with the school's and the club's efforts to keep her daughter's memory alive. Brown-Sanders remained optimistic that the scholarship, funded by charitable donations, would be even larger next year.

"We hope next year there will be even more since we didn't have as much time this year," Brown-Sanders said.

In other GBHS news, students from Barbara Atchison's Anatomy and Physiology class raised approximately $275 for Operation Smile doctors to fix childhood facial deformities, like cleft palate, for a child in a less fortunate country. The fundraising effort evolved from a class assignment and was spearheaded by 11th grade student Matthew Ferrara.

"I hope this raises awareness for people with cleft palate and prompts others to do something helpful with their lives, " said Ferrara, 16, who is expected to serve as editor of the school newspaper during his senior year.

"I felt like I was doing something productive with my education and giving back to the global community.