LAPSF News:

This is the final year of the Cerro Grande Scholarship, a scholarship awarded to Los Alamos High School Seniors whose homes were a total loss in the 2000 fire and who are graduating in good standing from Los Alamos High School. 

The winners of this year’s awards were enrolled at Mountain Elementary School and were about to complete kindergarten at the time of the fire.

The sale of the book Cerro Grande Canyons of Fire, Spirit of Community has funded this award since 2001.

This year’s winners are Theresa Sandoval and Morgan Schake.

Sandoval plans to become a high school English teacher upon completing her education. Sandoval remembers sitting in her grandfather’s home, where her family had evacuated, watching on TV as her family’s home was one of the first to burn. This experience moved “forest fires from the abstract to a tangible event” on the timeline of her life. 

Schake plans to work as an engineer in the medical sciences upon completing her education. Schake remembers, “receiving a box of Christmas ornaments from strangers all over the country,” an act of kindness and generosity she will never forget. 

The Cerro Grade Scholarship is administered by the LAPS Foundation. Visit the Foundation online at www.lapsfoundation.com.