By: Brianna Powell
On Monday March first, Madelynn Troutt, an incoming Bellarmine freshman, was killed by an impaired driver. Troutt, 17, would have been a part of Bellarmine’s class of 2025. To honor her memory, Bellarmine plans to start a nursing scholarship in Troutt’s name. This scholarship will be specifically for an incoming freshman nursing student from Butler High School, where Troutt attended.
The scholarship was initiated by Dana Willet, a former Butler High School cheerleader, who took it upon herself to call Bellarmine and inquire about starting a scholarship in memory of the late teen. Willet explained, “I wanted to do something for [the Troutt family] to honor her because I was heartbroken.”
Willet was devastated when she learned about the untimely death of Madelynn Troutt on the news, and she was determined to do something about it. Joan Riggert, Director of Planned Giving and Stewardship at Bellarmine University’s Alumni Office, explained, “She (Willet) had been on our website and called because she had seen our contact information about how to set up a scholarship. She knew that she wanted to make it a permanent endowed scholarship, which means the interest is used each year so that it never goes away, and she knew the price was $50,000, and she set her sights on $100,000.”
Willet plans to go above and beyond to get the scholarship endowed. She started a Facebook support group consisting of Butler cheerleaders as well as Madelynn’s family and friends. “When I learned about how she died … it was more than my heart could handle and so I went to Facebook and started that group,” Willet shared. This Facebook group has over 300 members now. In addition to raising awareness and speaking to multiple news sources, she also planned a first annual golf tournament in June to kick off fundraising for the scholarship.
The Madelynn Troutt nursing scholarship will have specific qualifications. According to Tim Sturgeon, Dean of Undergraduate Admission at Bellarmine University, “We’d like to give it to a nursing student from Butler high school.” In the event that no one applies to the nursing school from Butler, other nursing students will be considered.