Stormy Ray Cushing Scholarship Funds

“Live your life for what tomorrow has to offer, not for what yesterday has taken away.”

This prophetic quote used by Stormy Ray Cushing accurately summarizes the purpose of this scholarship.  Stormy’s scholarship fund was created to help pay back the community that so greatly helped her family after an auto accident left Stormy with a life-changing brain injury.

In 2009, Stormy was a typical high school girl. On an otherwise ordinary day, on her way to cheerleading practice, her car flipped after being struck by a motorcycle. She spent weeks in a coma and months in various hospitals, making slow but deliberate progress. She had to relearn how to walk, talk, and many other aspects of life most people can take for granted. And, she is still on her recovery journey.

According to Stormy’s mother, Marsha Cushing, a flood of support came from all over the Marion community after the accident and this inspired the scholarship fund.

The Cushing Scholarship makes awards to students from any high school in Marion County. Selection is based on an essay, in which applicants must write about an event they witnessed or experienced that changed their life or their perspective.

The Cushing Scholarship was created in 2014.  According to Marsha, “We are not as interested in a student’s financial status as we are on how they look at life.”