Eight scholarships of $500 each were recently awarded to high school students at Boone County High School and Cooper High School, marking the first class of recipients of the Carlotta Family and Friends Scholarship Fund.
The scholarship was created to honor Sam Carlotta, a Northern Kentucky man who sustained a spinal injury as a teenager. Carlotta dove into a pool at his family’s apartment complex in 1981 and hit his head and neck on an inner tube, leaving him with Brown Sequard Syndrome, a rare neurological condition that results in weakness or paralysis on one side of the body and a loss of sensation on the opposite side.
The injury put him through multiple procedures as he tried to regain some of his mobility.
Initially, doctors weren’t sure they could fix Carlotta’s paralysis. However, after a complex procedure to implant a halo in his skull and two cervical fusion surgeries at Good Samaritan Hospital, followed by long-term occupational and physical therapy, rehabilitation, and additional procedures, Carlotta regained some mobility and function.
A group of Carlotta’s closest friends and family surprised him with a $32,300 check to launch a new scholarship fund for local students, according to a press release from Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky. The Carlotta Family and Friends Scholarship Fund now partners with Horizon Community Funds.
“It is truly inspiring to see friends and family coming together to create positive change in our community,” said Nancy Grayson, President and CEO of Horizon Community Funds. “This scholarship fund will have a lasting impact on Northern Kentucky’s students, and we are grateful to be a part of it.”
Carlotta said he was blown away to “have been able to raise more than $34,000, create all the required documentation for the students, communicate with both high schools, accept twenty applications, be included in the senior awards night at both high schools, and award eight scholarships” all within the first year of this scholarship.
“None of this could have been accomplished without the assistance from the donors, family and friends, the fund’s steering committee, the principals and key staff members at Boone and Cooper High Schools, the students who applied, and Nancy and her wonderful staff at Horizon Community Funds,” he said. “Hopefully, this is just the start of bigger things to come as we look to establish a yearly fundraiser and expand to the other high schools in Boone County.”
He said the scholarship was changed to include trade schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities, in the hopes that the fund can “reach every student looking to further their education.”
“I am still overwhelmed by the thought and generosity of my family and friends who surprised me with this scholarship fund and for that, I thank them. Our goal is to positively impact as many lives as we can,” Carlotta said.