5K run, scholarship fund honor memory of young activist

Ashley Stevenson was all about community service.

At Sweetwater High School a few years ago, the then-student council president created a Think Pink campaign for breast cancer research. By college, she served as public relations director of the Aggie Southern Darlings group she helped form at Texas A&M. The list goes on.

Scott and Dwenette Stevenson only wish their beautiful 20-year-old daughter had lived to continue her tireless volunteer work.

Instead, the couple have introduced the Ashley Stevenson Memorial Scholarship. Its main fundraiser, a 5K run at the Texas Tech campus, is April 23.

"We collectively, as a family, the day she passed away, decided we wanted to do something to honor her," Dwenette Stevenson said.

Her husband agreed. "It's one of the ways we can keep her legacy alive."

Ashley died unexpectedly May 27, 2014, of a pulmonary embolism. As an organ and tissue donor, she was able to save others.

The scholarship seeks recipients who share Ashley's generosity.

"We wanted it to be geared to kids that have a volunteer spirit and give back to their community, because that's the kind of kiddo Ashley was," Dwenette said.

Gift of education

Nineteen-year-old Abraham Munnerlyn is thrilled with the $1,000 scholarship he was awarded. The Texas A&M biomedical science major has been able to work fewer hours to pay tuition and fees, concentrating his time instead on school and volunteer projects.

"Getting paid to go to college is such a gift," he said. "We all have some type of legacy, and to have a legacy known of a love of learning and of benefiting others, that her legacy's doing that, I think is incredible."

Like the scholarship's other recipients — there are four so far — Munnerlyn was selected for his activism. His efforts have led him everywhere from a sports camp in Honduras to churches and orphanages in Uganda and Haiti. One of his favorite volunteer projects is at Camp Blessing, a camp for adults and children with special needs.

"They just see the world in a different lens — I love that," he said. "I love interacting with them. These kids are not mistakes — God made them perfectly."

And like other recipients, he went through an application process. The Stevensons look for applicants who have a history of community service throughout high school, not just a few hours to fulfill a senior-year requirement.

A scholarship committee reviews and ranks the applications it receives, then requests the top 15 applicants send a short video showcasing their community service. Winners will be selected by late May.

This year, the committee received just over 300 applications. With a host of them strongly qualified, it widened the finalist pool to 17.

"We've had some amazing applicants," Dwenette Stevenson said.

The grieving mother also likes the chance to introduce her late daughter to so many other ambitious young folks. Applications have arrived from across the country.

"For me, the thing I really like about it, that gives me the most joy, is there are kids all across America who know about Ashley now, and their spirit embodies her legacy," she said.

One recipient already knew her, though. Madison Jones, 18, cheered with Ashley at Sweetwater High when she was a freshman and Ashley was a senior. Now a Texas A&M freshman communication major, she helps with her local animal shelter, Habitat for Humanity and other projects through the women's service organization Aggie Sweethearts.

"She just had a heart to serve, and I want to make her proud and give back like she did," Jones said. "It's just an amazing thing they're doing. Knowing Ashley was a blessing, even in the short time she was here."

Ashley

Ashley Stevenson was a year away from graduation when she passed away. A bubbly and outgoing sociology major, her career goal was to direct a nonprofit agency.

Meanwhile, she was excited about an internship she had just received with the Susan G. Komen breast-cancer organization. She was also so committed to her job as a driver's license technician with the Texas Department of Public Safety, she was known to pick up extra shifts at its Lubbock office when she came home for Thanksgiving break.

"She was pretty diligent," Dwenette Stevenson said.

Scott Stevenson's job as a Texas Ranger brought the family from Sweetwater to Lubbock about the time Ashley finished high school in 2012. The Stevensons also have two sons — Brandon, 17, and Cameron, 15.

Race

The Stevensons don't expect to ever get over losing their daughter.

"It's day to day sometimes," Scott said.

They've found some level of comfort, though, in organizing the scholarship and its fundraising race. The Ashley Stevenson Memorial 5K Run and 1 Mile Fun Run/Walk this year includes a new virtual race option in which participants run on their own time and at their own location.

Last year's race raised more than $35,000. All goes to the scholarship fund, so more is always better.

"The more money we raise, the bigger impact we can have," Dwenette said. "Our goal is to finance someone's education completely."

josephine.musico@lubbockonline.com

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Source: 5K run, scholarship fund honor memory of young activist