It Takes a Community
-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on May 9, 2109.
It may never have happened before and hasn’t happened since. In 1997 four Salutatorians graduated from Floyd County High School (FCHS). Alongside Class Valedictorian Jeremy Midkiff (center), the four were (left to right) Johanna Neuman, Kelly (Wade) Blackwell, Nicole (Phillips) Connolly and Amber Lutz.
Amber’s mother, Rain Lipson, recalls that all the five graduation speeches that year had a theme. Each graduate acknowledged that they couldn’t have achieved what they did without each other. But it was not just the five on the graduating stage who challenged and supported each other. Their fellow honor students from their Advanced Placement Calculus class, taught by teacher DJ Keith (photo below), worked together to raise the bar for achievement. “It was a team effort,” Lipson said. “And now they’re helping each other again and lifting others up.”
On February 14, 2019, Amber Lutz suffered a pulmonary embolism at her home in Massachusetts. She died at the hospital the following day, surrounded by her loving family. It was a sudden and unexpected death that shocked and grieved her family and friends.
Not long after Amber’s passing, her Co-salutatorian Nicole (Phillips) Connelly – who is currently a psychologist living in California – was moved to share photos on Facebook of Amber and the class of 1997’s elementary and high school days, including one of the four Salutatorians. Other classmates joined in, offering condolences and fond memories. Johanna Newman posted photos of Amber and her growing up together.
Neumann, who was born in Germany, moved with her mother and brother from Tennessee to Floyd in 1987. After finishing 3rd grade at Blue Mountain School, she chose to go to Floyd Elementary for the 4th grade (and beyond). Amber was Neumann’s classmate, but also her friend. They played together, went roller skating together, had sleep-overs and were Girl Scouts together. Amber’s mom was their troop leader, and Amber was known for selling the most cookies and acknowledged by the Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council for that. She was a recipient of the prestigious Gold Award as a Senior Girl Scout.
A week after Amber’s death, Neumann traveled from Amherst, Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband and two sons, to visit her mother, Ruth Neumann, in Floyd. One day, while in town, she posted on Facebook to let friends know that she was at the Red Rooster Café working online if they wanted to come by and say hello. Neumann is currently the Donor Development Director for the Public Interest Network and has been working for two decades in various mediums for a cleaner and greener future.
Fellow Honor Student classmate and 1997 FCHS Graduate, Becky Belcher Osborne dropped by the café, and the two friends had lunch. After catching-up, they spoke about Amber’s passing. “I feel like we’ve got to do something,” Osborne, who lives with her family in Floyd, remembers Neumann saying before she suggested the possibility of an annual scholarship that would honor Amber and help deserving young women pursue academic careers.
Osborne, the Chief Information Officer of Consolidated Risk Solutions, explained that she became passionate about the scholarship idea because of her love of Amber and Rain, but also because she felt a connection through the lack of women in her own field, even though the company she works with would like more women in the mix. “There are obviously a lot of very smart women. Why are they not working with me now?” she asked. “The more diverse the meetings and the groups I work with, the stronger they are.”
Before running their idea by Lipson, the pair did some groundwork that included getting contact information for The Community Foundation of the New River Valley (CFNRV), a non-profit 501 (c) (3) that professionally manages charitable donations, including those for scholarships. When Osborne emailed Lipson to ask if she would be interested in a scholarship in Amber’s name, Lipson remembers responding affirmatively “in all caps and with three exclamation points.”
Lipson and her husband George picked the idea up from there, and the Amber D. Lutz Memorial Scholarship Fund: Supporting FCHS Women Pursuing a Career in Math or Science was born. The goal is to raise $30,000, which will create a sustainable scholarship of $1,000 per year.
As of May 1st more than half of the fundraising goal had been met, through donations to the CFNRV, as well as through a Facebook fundraising campaign, of which the proceeds also go to CFNRV. In announcing the progress, Lipson shared, “I am not the recipient of this fundraiser in any way, but I have reaped its greatest rewards. It has sustained me through my darkest days, given me purpose and focus, and given me hope for the future of the young women in our under-served community. It is with deepest gratitude that I express my thanks for these wonderful gifts.”
Beginning in the spring of 2020 and at every graduation thereafter, the scholarship will be awarded in Amber’s name by her family. It will be based on GPA (Grade Point Average) as well as financial need, explained Lipson, who was a single parent for many years and remembers how important scholarships were to Amber in pursing higher education. In one of the 200 Scholarship announcement cards Lipson lovingly sent out, she wrote, “When asked by a cousin to describe his sister, Amber’s brother Cedar replied, “She was smart… so very smart…” After high school, Amber went on to graduate from the Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Forensic Biology, earning a 4.0 GPA. “Education was always important to Amber,” Lipson wrote.
“Amber was in the thick of it all,” Neumann remembers. She reminisced about their trips together to the Mountain Academic Competition Conference (MACC) academic tournaments. Osborne recalls their AP Calculus group getting to school early, meeting in the library to study together. Neumann recalls the friendly competition between them.
Kelly Wade Blackwell, one of the four 1997 Salutatorians, is the department chair of mathematics at FCHS and has been teaching at FCHS since Fall 2002. She says, “It was great to have such a strong support group as we took rigorous courses in high school. Our teachers were great but having peers to work with that truly cared about understanding the content and each other is rare. It was peer pressure but in the best sense of the words. We pushed each other to achieve at our best.”
“It takes a community” is how Lipson put it.
Note: To donate to the Amber D. Lutz Memorial Scholarship Fund, make checks payable to CFNRV and mail to P.O. Box 6009, Christiansburg, VA 24068. Please put “Amber Lutz Scholarship” in the memo line of your check. You may also donate online at www.cfnrv.org/donate. Under “Support A Fund” you will fill out the form and enter your donation amount. Under “Additional Details” please enter “Amber Lutz Scholarship.” If you are donating as part of a group you may enter your group name under “Your public posted comment.” All donations are tax deductible and CFNRV will send you a receipt. Note: The last photo is of D.J. Keith’s 1997 AP Calculus class.
