The worries we have about our children may ebb and flow, but they never really disappear, always below the surface. It’s part of parenting. When we hear of unspeakable tragedy we often wonder what good can come out of senselessness, how can someone find light in a rainstorm. We have a friend who found such light, and while that it is not always a healing force for what lurks below the surface, it is noteworthy, noble and certainly worth championing.
Our friend Steve Panus, is the President of Communications for The Jockey Club Media Ventures and America’s Best Racing and in August 2020, his family lost their son Jake, a 16-year-old resident of Southport, Ct in a DUI accident. Jake grew up sporting a South Carolina jersey at a young age and dreamed of one day playing for the Gamecocks, and his dream, as those of his family and friends, were tragically taken away that day.
But Steve, his family and a growing legion of supporters have found a way to properly honor Jake’s life through a series of scholarships which will reward not just football players, but members of the Indigenous community which Jake had gotten to know well through his church work.
Last week the family presented a scholarship to their second South Carolina walk-on football player, while in May they rewarded their second young Indigenous girl for her hard work as well.
That means that in just two years the family has handed out four college scholarships, Matthew Bailey and Payton Mangrum, in Columbia, who earned full scholarships through hard work, perseverance, commitment to their program, university and community, and grit. And to Ruby Good Buffalo and Cheree Ferguson, from Red Cloud Indian School on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Oglala County, South Dakota. Both young women are enrolled as freshmen at Black Hills State University.
The Jake Panus Walk-on Football Endowed Scholarship provides a walk-on football player who, through hard work and perseverance, earns an athletic scholarship and contributes toward the success of the Gamecock football team, the University and the community at large. The student-athlete will share Jake’s leadership attributes while demonstrating a motivated work ethic, fierce determination, team-first mentality, and grit on the football field.
The other scholarships will and are happening far away from the gridiron, all linked through the aura of Jake Panus. The reservation’s small Red Cloud High School educates any of the reservation’s students that chose to attend. In the case of both Rubi Good Buffalo and Cheree Ferguson, that has meant pre-dawn and late-evening hour-and-a-half drives to and from their rural homes to the school, located about 110 miles from Rapid City. They were not only star students at Red Cloud – Ferguson was the graduating class Salutatorian – but both are outstanding multi-sport athletes as well. A combination of admirable traits that also so aptly described Jake Panus. Rubi Good Buffalo plans to major in nursing. Cheree Ferguson, is currently unsure of her college major but now has a chance because of the good that came forward.
As we all know, the world we live in has short memories. The buzz, positive, or negative, gets swept away like the tide as we move on to the next challenge, drama or opportunity. Sustaining memory is very difficult and fleeting. However in building a legacy, The Panus family has found a way to envelope hope and good out of the unspeakable. That is virtuous beauty personified, and worthy not just of support, but of praise and acknowledgement for decades to come. There are few better at crafting a story than Steve Panus, and while this is one he would surely pass off and return if possible, its positive endings will keep bearing fruit, probably as Jake would have wanted. Sustaining good, in a world that doesn’t always seek the light.
For more information on the Jake Panus Walk On Football Scholarship at the University of South Carolina: https://donate.sc.edu/AG/sfp/ath/jake-panus-walk-on-football-endowed-scholarship
It’s worth your time.
