Special Scholarship Recipients Visit the Memorial

For the second year in a row, the recipients of the Vantagepoint Memorial Scholarship Fund visited the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial on July 14, 2008. The Vantagepoint Public Employee Memorial Scholarship Fund is a program, founded in 2001 by the ICMA Retirement Corporation (ICMA-RC), to honor our nation’s police officers, firefighters, and other local and state government employees who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The Scholarship Fund awards scholarships to the surviving children and spouses in amounts up to $10,000 annually for post-secondary education. Historic Union Station serves as the location for the awards ceremony and, for many of the recipients, this is their first trip to Washington, D.C.

The recipients and their families were invited to participate in a “Heart of America” tour that included a trip to D.C.’s Fire Engine Company 3 and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. This year, 21 of the 40 recipients are the children of law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty.

Brian Lacey, Memorial Programs Operations Manager, showed the group around the Memorial park and provided a brief history of the Memorial. After the short tour, the group found the names of family members and friends on the Memorial and did their own etchings, taking a moment to reflect on their loved ones. It meant a lot to them to visit the Memorial during their trip to Washington and to have an opportunity to view their parent’s name engraved on the wall.

The NLEOMF offers our congratulations and best wishes to the 2008 recipients as they continue their education, and we look forward to greeting next year’s recipients of the Vantagepoint Scholarships at the Memorial.