Keeping Ryan and Collin’s memory alive, one student at a time

The story behind the scholarship

A letter from Ben Milder

We want to provide you with a little bit of background on the Ryan & Collin Petitte Memorial Scholarship Fund. In doing so, we hope to give you a better understanding of why we organized this scholarship and its link to the adventure challenge.

Ryan Petitte graduated from Ukiah High School, in Ukiah, CA in 1990; his younger brother Collin in 1997. Ryan and Collin moved to town with their parents from the state of Hawaii in the summer of 1987, prior to his sophomore year. My twin brother and I first met Ryan on the football field. He saw the junior varsity team practicing and raced over with cleats in hand from his house across the street. The beginning of an everlasting friendship.

“The beginning of an everlasting friendship.”

Ryan died unexpectedly from an extremely rare genetic disorder in November of 2003. His death was preceded by his younger brother Collin’s more than a year prior from the same condition. We could spend pages describing them both. Let it be enough to say they are greatly missed and loved by family and friends.

In the year following Collin’s death, Ryan and I talked about his intention to start up a scholarship in his brother’s name. He didn’t describe the specifics, but made it clear he wanted to pay tribute to his brother and keep his memory alive. After Ryan’s passing, it became my and my brother’s goal – with his family – to see the scholarship realized.

Annually, we raise money for the scholarship with the Ryan Petitte Capital Adventure Challenge. Now in its twenty-fourth year (it started in 2002 before Ryan passed away), the Capital Adventure Challenge is a two-day, fourteen-stage, loosely “athletic” competition organized with a group of friends. It’s about friendship, fun, and remembrance. Competitors reach out to their broader network of friends and colleagues to raise money for the fund. And representatives from each group of Adventure Challenge participants – working with an advisory board that includes friends and family of Ryan and Collin – help to select the next year’s scholarship recipient.

It’s our hope that the scholarship will serve as a modest tribute and remembrance. We believe that each winner uniquely and positively represents Ryan and Collin’s memory.

Thanks to strong support from an incredibly generous group of contributors, the first Ryan and Collin Petitte Memorial Scholarship was first awarded in May of 2006. We awarded the twenty-first scholarship this year.

Scholarship winners receive a $2,000 scholarship for their first year of school and $1,000 a year annually for books in years two, three and four.

The 2027 scholarship will be awarded in June.

Feel free to contact me directly with any questions about the scholarship fund. I can be reached at (703) 731-9245 or ben.milder@gmail.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Ben Milder
Founder