MOH Recipient Issues Scholarship Challenge

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2011 — Medal of Hon­or recip­i­ent Marine Corps Sgt. Dako­ta Mey­er plans to raise $1 mil­lion in schol­ar­ship mon­ey for the chil­dren of wound­ed Marines and Navy corps­men, and chal­lenges the Amer­i­can pub­lic to match it.

Mey­er announced his “Sergeant Dako­ta Mey­er Schol­ar­ship,” a $2 mil­lion schol­ar­ship match­ing ini­tia­tive, at the Marine Corps Schol­ar­ship Foun­da­tion 2011 Cer­e­mo­ny and Recep­tion, here, Sept. 13, two days before Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma pre­sent­ed him with the Medal of Hon­or in a White House ceremony. 

“My entire Marine Corps career was about chal­lenges and meet­ing that chal­lenge,” Mey­er said in an inter­view with MarinesTV. “So what I decid­ed to do was chal­lenge myself to raise $1 mil­lion for the schol­ar­ship fund ini­tia­tive, and I’m chal­leng­ing Amer­i­ca to match — dol­lar for dol­lar — what I can bring into the fund.” 

Mey­er recent­ly part­nered with the foun­da­tion to form his ini­tia­tive and raise the $1 mil­lion plus match­ing funds by the foundation’s 50th anniver­sary on May 28, 2012. 

“I chose to part­ner with the Marine Corps Schol­ar­ship Foun­da­tion on this ini­tia­tive because of our com­mon mis­sion of sup­port­ing Marines and Navy corps­men fam­i­lies,” Mey­er said. “Edu­ca­tion paves the path for our future, and the mon­ey we raise will lead to a brighter future for the sons and daugh­ters of many Marines.” 

Meyer’s chal­lenge to the pub­lic to raise a match­ing $1 mil­lion is to hon­or Marines and Navy corps­men by edu­cat­ing their chil­dren, foun­da­tion offi­cials said. 

Out­lin­ing his call to the pub­lic for match­ing schol­ar­ship dona­tions, Mey­er set up the “Dako­ta Mey­er Chal­lenge” website. 

The Marine Corps Schol­ar­ship Foun­da­tion is the nation’s old­est and largest provider of need-based schol­ar­ships to U.S. mil­i­tary fam­i­lies, and has pro­vid­ed 26,500 schol­ar­ships val­ued at more than $65 mil­lion for the post-high school edu­ca­tion of chil­dren of wound­ed Marines and Navy corps­men, accord­ing to its website. 

Mey­er, the nation’s most recent recip­i­ent of the Medal of Hon­or, is cred­it­ed with sav­ing 37 lives in a six-hour fire­fight fol­low­ing an ene­my ambush on U.S. and Afghan troops in the Gan­j­gal Val­ley of Kunar province, Afghanistan, Sept. 8, 2009, when he was a cor­po­ral. The nation’s high­est mil­i­tary hon­or, the Medal of Hon­or is award­ed for risk of life in com­bat beyond the call of duty. 

Mey­er is the third liv­ing ser­vice mem­ber to receive the Medal of Hon­or for actions dur­ing the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)