Beaver Creek High School might be gone, but the memories of the school that are shared by 46 graduating classes are still very alive and strong. For the members of the Class of 1957, who meet for an annual reunion on Labor Day, a desire was voiced in 2009 to honor their past and help the future by creating the Beaver Creek High School Memorial Scholarship Fund.

John Duvall, a 1957 graduate of Beaver Creek, said his first thought "it would be something that our class would sponsor, but as it developed lots of individuals from other classes started asking" if the scholarship could represent all the school's graduates.

There were 81 graduates in 1957 and many went on to work in education, medicine and the military. Duvall said that, through their annual reunions, the class has "rejoiced in our successes and comforted each other in our sorrows and our struggles, always out of the idea that we were a close-knit group from a little country high school."

Beaver Creek was open from 1954 to 1999, and its beginning was very similar to its end. Duvall said that Beaver Creek was created to merge three schools, and it was later closed when Ashe County High School was built to combine Beaver Creek, Northwest Ashe and Ashe Central high schools.

"We came there from three separate schools, brought our separate pasts and backgrounds with us, and somehow became a unified group of students in which everyone had a place," said Duvall.

With the help of the North Carolina Community Foundation (NCCF), the group that will administer the scholarship, the goal is for the memorial scholarship to provide a $500 scholarship to a student of Ashe County High School. The scholarship will also be renewable for three years as long as the student maintains a 2.5 grade point average (GPA) in college.

Before the scholarship becomes official, however, Duvall and other organizers for the scholarship are looking to all Beaver Creek alumni to help raise the $25,000 that is required to start a scholarship fund with the NCCF. Duvall said the goal is to raise the funds by Dec. 31, but that it's just the beginning.

"The long range goal is for other classes to help us, adding to our basic amount [so we can] have more than one scholarship we could give to students," he said.

The preliminary requirements for students who apply for the scholarship are: being a graduate from ACHS, or any successor high school to ASHS, who has been admitted as a full-time student to any accredited college or university; maintain a GPA of 3.0 or better between grades 10 and 12; and demonstration of good character. A written essay will also be part of the application process.

Donations to the Beaver Creek Memorial Scholarship Fund are tax-deductible. Duvall noted that the group is currently seeking pledges to be paid at a later date once the group has gathered pledges of $25,000 or more.

To find out more, contact Duvall at jaduval@yahoo.com or call (276) 655-3942; H. Lynn Moretz at hlmoretz910@gmail.com or (704) 892-6011; or Becky Burgess at bebepapa@skybest.com.

To find out more about the North Carolina Community Foundation, click to www.nccommunityfoundation.org.