About the Ryan & Collin Petitte Memorial Scholarship
We created this scholarship as a modest tribute and remembrance to two brothers, Ryan and Collin Petitte, two wonderful young men who graduated from Ukiah High School. Ryan died unexpectedly from an extremely rare genetic disorder in November of 2003. His younger brother had Collin died only a year prior from the same condition.
Rather than dwell on loss, friends and family of the Pettite brothers chose to “give back” by helping young men and women from the Ukiah, CA area who reflect Ryan and Collin’s generous spirits and love of life.
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 and has since helped 13 individuals who truly exemplify the qualities of character and community we had hoped to recognize with this memorial scholarship.
The four-year scholarship is not limited to 4.0 scholars, star athletes, or students with the most club memberships. Instead, we look for qualities that remind us of the “interests and ideas” of the Petitte family and the brothers who loved the fun and adventure of the outdoors.
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.
A childhood friend remembers Ryan and Collin
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. It was the beginning of an everlasting friendship.
Ryan Petitte graduated from Ukiah High School, in Ukiah, CA in 1990; his younger brother Collin in 1997. Years later and far from Ukiah, Ryan and I found ourselves once again living in the same town, Washington, D.C., and resumed our close friendship - which now included our families and most recently Ryan’s newborn twin boys. In November of 2003 Ryan died unexpectedly from an extremely rare genetic disorder. Only a year before his younger brother Collin had died from the same condition. I could spend pages describing them both to you. 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 sibling and keep his memory alive. After Ryan’s passing, it became my and my brother’s goal – along with the Petitte family – to see the scholarship realized.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sincerely,
Ben Milder
Founder
(DONATE HERE)
The Adventure Challenge and the Memorial Scholarship - what’s the connection?
The Capitol Adventure Challenge is a two-day, fourteen-stage, loosely “athletic” competition organized with a group of friends. It was started among a small group of friends in the fall of 2002, the year before Ryan passed away.
After Ryan’s death the Capitol Adventure Challenge was renamed the RPCA (Ryan Petitte Adventure Challenge) in Ryan’s honor and it’s mission expanded to include raising funds to support the memorial scholarship fund.
Every year since the Adventure Challenge participants reach out to their broader network of friends and colleagues to raise money for the fund. Representatives of Adventure Challenge participants also serve on the advisory board that annually reviews and selects the scholarship recipient for that year.
It is now in its seventeenth year the RPCA is all about friendship, fun, and remembrance.
In June of 2018, the thirteenth scholarship was awarded to Ruby Telfer to attend U.C. Davis.
We could not have hoped for better candidates in our thirteen years awarding the scholarship. Each of them - Ryan, Taylor, Brendan, Garrett, Elizabeth, Shelby, Reef, Maria, Mariah, Derian, Charles, Jordan and now Ruby - truly exemplify the type of individual we had hoped to recognize with the scholarship.
