Grant will honor formwer student and help others discover the Appalachian Trail

  • By Kyle Valentini
  • November 29, 2011
  • 295
                        
Summary: Retired Garaway guidance counselor, Karen Izzi Gallagher made it her mission to write and receive a grant for $5000 from the Pepsi Refresh Project to honor a former student and friend that died unexpectedly when he was only 17. Her efforts paid off and future generations of Garaway students will have the opportunity to learn and hopefully grow to love the Appalachian Trail as much as Daniel Lash. New Philadelphia resident, Karen Izzi Gallagher could have only imagined ordering thousands of dollars worth of hiking and camping gear last August when she was rallying the community, friends and family to vote for a proposal she had written for the Pepsi Refresh Project to provide a scholarship for Garaway High School students interested in hiking the Appalachian Trail. The Pepsi Refresh Project is an ongoing contest where applicants submit their idea, promote it and get votes. Pepsi funds the project that gets the most votes. The top 20 vote-getting proposals in the $5,000 level receive funding. Gallagher’s proposal, the Appalachian Trail Scholarship in Memory of Daniel Lash, was one of the winners. Motivated by a former student she got to know when she worked as a guidance counselor at Garaway High School at Sugarcreek, Gallagher’s hope was to provide a scholarship to students that were a part of the Garaway Trail Club, the same club that allowed Daniel Lash the opportunity to hike the trail for four consecutive years. Unfortunately for Daniel, his last hike with the Garaway Trail Club would be his last. On Nov. 24, 2007, when he was a senior at Garaway High School, he died unexpectedly from an undetected heart problem. His death devastated his family, the school, the community and residents throughout Tuscarawas County. Daniel, known to his friends as the Dan, was a member of the wrestling and baseball teams. He was also a member of the Journalism Class, Trail Club and the Industrial Tech Club. He was an office aide at Garaway High School. He was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church at New Philadelphia, where he was baptized and confirmed. He was also a member of Young Life. One of his favorite activities at Garaway was hiking the Appalachian Trail with the Garaway Trail Club, then headed up by Tim Immel and assisted by Leslie Yoder and Alan Patterson. Several weeks after Lash returned from that year's hike, he collapsed in the family home after a morning at wrestling practice. His young life made an impression on many people. “My original proposal was to provide two $500 scholarships to students that demonstrated need each year for five years. I had to rewrite the proposal at Pepsi’s request and the winning proposal was for $5000 and I had to spend it within nine months,” said Gallagher. “I consulted Daniel’s mom and the Trail Club advisors, Leslie Yoder and Alan Patterson and together we came up with a list of equipment that would benefit the club for this year’s Appalachian Trail hike and other hikes for years to come.” Gallagher was given a Visa card with a limit of $5000 from Pepsi to purchase equipment and supplies for the Trail Club. “We decided to use a Utah company called Back Country for much of the equipment,” said Gallagher. “The school had used them in the past and they were pleased with the prices and the service. It was really exciting having that card in my hand knowing I could provide all this stuff for the kids.” To date Gallagher has spent $2998.44 with the remainder of the balance to be used to rent the charter bus that will take the Trail Club hikers to the Appalachian Trail in March of 2012. Some of the equipment purchased included tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, water bottles, water filters, portable stoves first aid kits and an assortment of dehydrated food that will feed the hikers as they explore the wilderness that was so important to Daniel. The love of a student and the desire to keep his memory alive by supporting future generations of Garaway students was all the motivation needed for Gallagher to hope, dream and accomplish a mission that she knows would have been approved by Daniel. Gallagher has never hiked the Appalachian Trail but intends to do so this spring with husband Jim and daughter Kelsey. “We’ll be heading to Angel’s Rest where there is a geocache with special things that belonged to Daniel,” said Gallagher. Angel’s Rest is a well-worn trail that leads into a spring-fed ravine and briefly along an old logging road before settling into a consistent, thrashing course of switchbacks. The path crosses over two ancient rockslides and passes through thick poplar, oaks, laurel and rhododendron. Hikers travel the 1.5-mile, 1,650 climb before reaching the top that overlooks the New River near Pearisburg, VA. Gallagher will present the equipment she was able to purchase with the Pepsi Refresh grant to the Garaway Trail Club at the Jan. 9, 2012 Garaway Board of Education Meeting at 7 p.m. The public is invited to attend. In addition to the Pepsi refresh Project, Daniel’s parents, Steve and Cathy Lash hold an annual fundraiser to fund the Daniel Lash Memorial Scholarship that awards a $1000 academic scholarship to a graduating Garaway senior that can be used toward college expenses. This year’s fundraiser is a chicken barbeque and will be held Saturday, December 3 at Sugarland IGA at Sugarcreek.


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