Memorial dinner held to raise money for ag scholarship
More than two hundred people gathered Friday night in the Taggart Student Center Ballroom to honor the legacy of the Utah State agriculture students and professor that died one year ago.
Teaming up with Utah State University, the Justin Wade Gunnell Foundation organized the Ag Tech Memorial Scholarship Benefit Dinner. At the dinner, homage was paid to the eight young men and one professor that lost there lives in a tragic van rollover accident that occurred Sept. 26, 2005.
The Justin Wade Gunnell Foundation was created by Connie Gunnell, the wife of Justin Gunnell, who was one of the victims in the accident and Mel Torrie, President of Autonomous Solutions, Inc. a former employer of Justin Gunnell. The foundation was started in February and completely under way by May. It serves to provide funding and service for several charities in Justin’s honor, Connie said.
“We created the foundation because Justin loved to help others,” Torrie said. “He often complained that he didn’t have enough time to help everyone he wanted to.”
Torrie said he has always believed everything happens for a reason. After unsuccessfully finding a reason for this tragedy, he said he concluded that this foundation and helping others in Justin’s name would have to be his reason.
The Ag Tech Memorial Scholarship fund was started last fall ensuing the accident. Torrie said donating to the fund is just one of the many ways the foundation plans to pay tribute to Justin.
Cody Bingham, last year’s senator for the College of Agriculture spoke at the function and explained to attendees how the Ag Tech Scholarship would be allocated to USU students. Bingham said this coming spring, the first recipient for the scholarship will be chosen. Requirements for scholarships usually have grade point average guidelines, credit hour requirements or certain guidelines within an area of study, he said. Bingham announced that currently the fund has over $27,000 in it, enough to create an official scholarship endowment.
“In honor of these agriculture students who loved their farming backgrounds, the main requirements for awarding the scholarship are that the recipient(s) love the agriculture industry and have plans to continue those traditions,” Bingham said.
A highlight of the evening was when Connie Gunnell presented Bruce Miller, Agriculture Technology Systems and Education department head and Logan Ipsen, current Agriculture Senator, with a check for $9150 to be added to the scholarship fund.
Before the presentation of the check, Connie addressed the audience, saying Justin loved school because he could spend time with fellow farm boys doing what they loved to do. She said he enjoyed school at USU and through his joy of helping others, several things he loved could be accomplished.
-sastewart@cc.usu.edu