Utah 1033 Foundation | Zions Bank Scholarship Presentation

I recently posted a collection from a photo shoot with the Utah 1033 Foundation.

I was honored when they asked me to work with them again, this time to capture one of their events.  I immediately accepted the opportunity — after all, they are a tremendous organization — but I didn’t actually know what the even was. V and I simply showed up at the Zions Bank building in downtown Salt Lake City, camera gear in tow.

I was completely unprepared for how emotional the morning would render me.  The event was a scholarship presentation for four Utah students, all children of active law enforcement officers.  Each scholarship was named for an officer that had been killed in the line of duty since the inception of the 1033 organization in 2011, and the families of the fallen officers would be awarding the scholarships to the students.  There was a table set up that bore the photographs and dates of death of the four police officers.

Cue the waterproof mascara.

As the officers’ widows — young women (some younger than I am) — hugged these students, describing to them the husbands’ qualities that inspired the honor behind these awards,  I had tears streaming down my face and had to run to the refreshments table to grab napkins.  The purpose of the event was, indeed, to celebrate the students’ achievements in winning these scholarships, but the morning also acknowledged and commemorated the lives of the fallen officers… and the families they left behind.

1033 co-founders Tore and Mona Steen were proud of this inaugural scholarship presentation.  “We created the Utah 1033 Foundation with two main goals in mind: to provide immediate financial assistance to the families of fallen law enforcement officers and to help provide educational opportunities for the children of officers currently serving our communities,” said Tore. “We’re dedicated to supporting Utah’s law enforcement personnel and their loved ones, and this is an important next step in the evolution of The Utah 1033 Foundation.”

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Officers for whom the awards were named, each killed in the line of duty since 2011: Ogden City Police Officer Jared Francom, Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Aaron Beesley, Draper City Police Sgt. Derek Johnson and Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Cory Wride.

Scholarship recipients: Shaun Bartschi, son of Cache County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mikelshan Bartsch; Kassidy Chamberlain, daughter of Grantsville Police Lt. Dan Chamberlain; Rebecca Collett, daughter of Daggett County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Christopher Collett; Monica McCoy, daughter of Smithfield Police Chief Johnny W. McCoy