Lavonia Police Award Steven LaCruz Thomas Memorial Scholarship

One Franklin County High School senior will have a little extra financial help when she enters college in the fall, courtesy of the Lavonia Police.

Tuesday night, Lavonia Police Chief Bruce Carlisle presented a $5,000 scholarship to Rebecca Herring.

Herring is the recipient of the Steven LaCruz Thomas Memorial Scholarship.

The scholarship was put together by the Lavonia Police Department in memory of Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Cruz Thomas who was killed in May of last year on I-85 while in pursuit of a traffic violator.

Carlisle called the scholarship presentation an honor.

“It was such an honor to be able to do two things,” he said. “One we were able to honor a fallen brother. We had struggled for a long time to come with a way to honor the memory of Cruz Thomas.  This is what we came up with. This $5,000 scholarship can help another person who is deserving.”

Herring is an honor student at Franklin County High School and will be attending Young Harris College in the fall.

“I can say that Rebecca was most deserving, most humble, most honored to receive this scholarship,” Carlisle said. “She’s already been accepted into Young Harris and even with a Hope Scholarship, private schools like that can be very expensive.”

Carlisle said of the 30 application forms left at the high school, about 10 were actually turned in for consideration.  An unnamed selection committee then went over those applications.

Carlisle said they were able to narrow down the winner to three finalists, but even then, he said the final decision was a difficult one.

“They struggled tremendously to come up with a winner because of the quality of applicants,” he said. “And as I said to Dr. O’Dell Tuesday night, that’s a testament to her and her staff of the fine instruction offered at Franklin County High School.”

Carlisle said at this time he and his department have no plans to make the scholarship an annual award.