Former Scholarship Recipient Honors Teammates in a Lasting Way That Will Help Others Forever

When two of Matthew Elliott's Maury High School fellow swim team members died far too young, he decided to find a way to honor them.  

In 2014 he started the Dean-Callahan Scholarship Fund to pay tribute to his friends Carlton

Carlton Dean was a great swimmer.

Dean and Joey Callahan of Norfolk, Virginia, who passed away in 2012 and 2013.

"Both were personable people and good leaders who made others better," says Matt, who works for the Hampton Roads Sanitation District and is studying engineering at Old Dominion University. Matt, 25, was a Hampton Roads Community Foundation scholarship recipient during his four years of undergraduate study at Virginia Military Institute. He was helped  for four years at VMI by a Col. J. Addison Hagan Memorial Scholarship. 

Joey Callahan excelled at volleyball
& swimming

Hagan's friends started the scholarship him in 1980 at the community foundation after he passed away. Matt's goal is to follow in the footsteps of Hagan's friends. His goal is to raise $25,000 to create a permanent scholarship fund at the community foundation in memory of Carlton and Joey. 

The scholarship would be for Norfolk Public School athletes going on to college. Matt has arranged for donations to go to The Maury Foundation with 20 percent of proceeds benefiting the nonprofit that helps improve life for Maury High students. The rest of donations would be earmarked for a new scholarship fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. Once $25,000 is reached, funds would transfer to the community foundation to start the permanent scholarship.

A kickoff event for the new Dean-Callahan Scholarship Fund will be held Friday, August 15, at the Mallory Country Club in Norfolk starting at 4 p.m. It will involve volleyball matches,swimming competitions, dinner and an auction. Details are posted to deancallahan.com.

(The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $195 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )