Scholarship honors the memory of Landon Smith
Established by his mother, it helps the next generation of electricians
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Area residents will soon have the opportunity to enjoy good food and live music as a way to support the training of the next generation of local electricians.
At the root of the effort is the remarkable grit of a Fort Dodge woman determined to see that something good would come out of the tragic death of her son.
That woman is Donna Smith. Her son, Landon Smith, was an electrical technologies student at Iowa Central Community College when he died in a 2020 motorcycle crash.
At the time of his death, the COVID pandemic was disrupting just about every aspect of life. One result was that Landon Smith's funeral was delayed.
Anxious for something to keep her mind occupied, Donna Smith decided to try to raise some money to support the training of other Iowa Central electrical technologies students. She set out to bake and sell some banana and pumpkin bread. That effort was spectacularly successful, generating 250 orders for the bread.
When she delivered the money to Iowa Central, administrators said there was enough for two scholarships. So the Landon Smith Memorial Scholarship was born.
It is a $1,500 award given to one student in electrical technologies every year. It has been awarded twice so far.
Despite its success, that first bake sale wasn't enough to keep the scholarship available for the long term. Other fundraisers are needed.
One of those will be held from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Oct 17 at Rides Bar & Grill, 725 S. 31st St. Tank Anthony will perform.
There are good reasons to go to this, and we encourage people to do so.
First, who doesn't like good food and live music?
But perhaps more importantly, our region is chronically short of skilled tradespeople like electricians. We need more of them. Supporting the Landon Smith Memorial Scholarship helps to ensure that the cost of schooling doesn't stop aspiring electricians from achieving their goals.
Supporting the scholarship honors the memory of Landon Smith.
And doing so also honors the determination of his mother, Donna Smith, who has worked so hard to create something good out of the aftermath of tragedy.