Surviving Children of Fallen Texas Firefighters and Police Officers Honored at ICMA-RC Vantagepoint Public Employee Memorial Scholarship Award Ceremony

FORT WORTH, Texas, April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Former and current Texas college students, who are surviving children of fallen firefighters and police officers and recipients of the ICMA-RC Vantagepoint Public Employee Memorial Scholarship (ICMA-RC Memorial Scholarship), were honored at an April 15 ceremony at the Fort Worth Police & Firefighters Memorial.  

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120424/PH93798 )

The students recognized were Kiara Cotton of Cedar Hill, who earned her master's degree in health care administration from the University of Texas at Arlington; Kimberly Dillard of Savoy, who studied at Kaplan University and is now a police officer for the City of Leonard Police Department; and Erin Hunter of Grand Prairie, a nursing student at Texas Christian University (TCU).  Each student is a former or current recipient of the ICMA-RC Memorial Scholarship, which provides post-secondary educational scholarships to the surviving children and spouses of fallen firefighters, police officers and other public employees in our nation's cities, counties and states.

Kiara Cotton's father, Vincent Davis of the Dallas Fire Department; Kim Dillard's, father Lt. Lowry Douglas Durington, of the Healdton Oklahoma Police Department and Erin Hunter's father, Sergeant Gregory Hunter of the Grand Prairie Police Department, were killed in the line of duty.

Public officials from the Arlington Fire Department, Dallas Police Department, and the Dallas Fort Worth Airport attended the reception and expressed their gratitude to the families for the sacrifice their loved ones made.

"We are privileged to honor recipients of the ICMA-RC Public Employee Memorial Scholarship Fund Award in the Dallas/Fort Worth area," said Joan McCallen, President of the ICMA-RC Public Employee Memorial Scholarship Fund and President and CEO of ICMA-RC. "Despite their tragic losses, these ICMA-RC Vantagepoint Public Employee Memorial Scholarship Award recipients have achieved academic success. We are proud of their many achievements."  

The event included a welcome from Keith Sendall, Senior Vice President, ICMA-RC, and remarks from scholarship award recipient Erin Hunter. "Without assistance from the ICMA-RC Memorial Scholarship Fund, it would have been difficult to pay my tuition and room and board," Hunter said. "I hope that my dedication to hard work and plans to give back to the community by assisting those who are ill will demonstrate my deep appreciation for this award."

Since its inception in 2001, the ICMA-RC Vantagepoint Public Employee Memorial Scholarship Fund has awarded more than $800,000 in scholarships to more than 200 surviving children and spouses of public employees. A number of those recipients have been Texas natives or attended college in Texas. The ICMA-RC Vantagepoint Public Employee Memorial Scholarship Fund is made possible through the generosity of contributing donors. For more information about how to apply for a scholarship or contribute to the Fund, please visit www.vantagescholar.org.

About the ICMA-RC Vantagepoint Public Employee Memorial Scholarship Fund

The Fund is a Section 501(c)(3) public charity founded by ICMA-RC in 2001. Financial support for the scholarship is provided by ICMA-RC, individual sponsors, foundations and organizations. Applications for 2013 scholarships will be accepted from Dec. 15, 2012 through March 15, 2013. More information is available at www.vantagescholar.org.

About ICMA-RC

Founded in 1972, ICMA-RC is a non-profit independent financial services corporation focused on providing retirement plans and related services for close to a million public sector participant accounts and approximately 9,000 retirement plans. Our mission is to help build retirement security for public employees. We deliver on our mission by focusing on service, quality and value. All of our retirement programs, administrative services and educational tools have been developed specifically for public sector retirement plan administrators and participants. For more information, visit www.icmarc.org.        

SOURCE ICMA-RC

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