First Sidiar Thornton scholarship awarded
Published 3:50 pm Friday, May 31, 2019
- Recent Valley High graduate Brheady Power (right) is the recipient of the inaugural Sidiar Thornton Scholarship, given through the Betty/LaGayle Foundation, named for two local women who lost their lives to breast cancer. Left, is Sidiar Thornton, who graduated from Valley High in 1960. — Wayne Clark
VALLEY — The first-ever Sidiar Thornton Scholarship was presented to a Valley High School graduate Thursday afternoon.
Brheady Power, who is headed Auburn University in the fall, received the scholarship from Sidar Thornton, who graduated from Valley in 1960.
Power is the son of Mike and Nadeena Power of Valley. His father is a teacher and coach at the high school and his mother is a controller for Point University in West Point.
At Auburn, Power will major in civic engineering, backed by a Marine ROTC scholarship. He said after graduating from college, he will follow in his dad’s footsteps by joining the U.S. Marines. His father served in the armed forces from 1996 to 2000.
Serving in the military is a family trait, as Power’s two older brother are also in college and plan on military careers. Harper Power is at Georgia Tech and will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army after graduation. The other brother, Zade, is at Auburn majoring in pre-med. He will also be a second lieutenant when he graduates. His goal is to be an Army doctor. Harper Power graduated from Valley in 2016 and Zade followed suit the next year.
The Sidiar Thornton Scholarship is made possible through the Betty/LaGayle Foundation, which was established in 2015 by Uconda Autry McCants with the purpose of promoting cancer awareness by encouraging men and women to implement a CARE plan.
The overall goal is to decrease the number of deaths caused by cancer, provide monetary support for cancer survivors and financial assistance to high school students who are bound for college.
The foundation is named for a mother and daughter, who both lost their lives to breast cancer. During their lifetimes, they both aided high school graduates who were pursuing college educations. The foundation was founded by Uconda Autry McCants, Tamla Autry and Charles Autry and has awarded numerous scholarships throughout the past four years.
“This foundation and what it does means a lot to me,” Thornton said. “I worked with LaGayle at the city of West Point in the early 1990s and thought a lot of her.
