Shortly after Ryan's passing three years ago today his mom Michelle and I decided we would immediately set up a scholarship at Rowan University where he was attending. His major was physics and math but his love was reading. Scholarships work two ways, you donate and when the money is up its over, or if you donate ALOT it becomes an endowment for impertuity. Thanks to support of friend and family Ryan's memory and scholarship will go on forever. This fall the scholarship winner was Jada Eldridge, a physics major and computer science minor, congrats Jada!
This past August we were planning another big celebration of his life and what would have been his 24th birthday. Music, food, drinks, and raffles and prizes would have kicked in more money to his scholarship. Right now its just for a physics major and we hoped to give away another for literature and then math. Coronavirus halted those plans. So now I figured I'd throw it out there to keep the thing going.
I am asking for small donations from a lot of people, not big ones from a few. Say $5 or $10 will go along way when it all adds up. You can go to the Rowan foundation website by clicking on the link RYAN SCHOLARSHIP right there. Below is what the opening page looks like.
Then you choose "Fund of Your Choice" and scroll down until you see" Ryan Archer Scholarship" and click on his name, it'll look like the screen below.
When you return back you'll get the below screen that asks for your info and payment details and you are all set. Its tax deductible and they send out letters after you donate.
After we recieved Ryan's ashes back I decided to spread them at a place were I could go and connect with him. Ryan loved fishing as a kid but moved away from it as he got older, maybe because I was always pushing fly fishing. I chose Phillips Avenue in Deal as the place and went out and stood on a rock and let him fall gently into the sea, well on the rocks too.
That rock is now known as "Ryan's Rock", to both me and the regulars that fish down there. Today in the darkness I visited it with fly rod in hand. I wasnt looking to catch, I was just looking to connect. I played "Blackbird" by the Beatles, a song Ryan as mastered on the guitar and loved. It gets me when the following line is sung, "All your life you were only waiting for this moment to be free.....".
There were no fish, no bait, dead low tide at sunrise, but a beautiful morning just the same. I usually wait for something, a gut feeling, a sign, but it was peaceful this morning. Before I pulled away I drove my truck down to the entrance to the beach, the sun was up, and I felt it, and it was good.
