BRATTLEBORO-Once again, 2024 has been an excellent year for the Walk for Amber Scholarship. Between the walk and raffle on June 2 and our Vermont Welcome Center fundraiser on July 13, we raised just under $4,000.
We awarded four Amber Bernier Scholarships - congrats, Larissa, Georgia, Ava, and Abby! - bringing our total to 61 since giving out the first in 2004.
We are so grateful to our community for all the support and proud of our scholarship recipients who by their character and determination do great honor to our daughter's memory.
Finally, we would like to share our remarks prior to the Walk. We hope they give a sense of our journey as we grieve and honor our precious daughter and our gratitude to this special community:
"Thinking about what to say today, we recognize that we are coming off some hard years. In our family, we've had some challenging transitions, and honestly, it feels like we are turning the corner, with a wonderful new grandson and more babies to come.
"Still, along with these joys, we see a world with wars and famine and more natural disasters than ever. We continue to suffer through the aftermath of a global pandemic, and our politics are divisive and hurtful.
"Thinking about Amber in the context of so much joy and so much pain, I think about how she was a stabilizing influence.
"Injustice mattered to Amber. She was observant. She listened more than she talked, but when something was wrong, Amber spoke up. She did not feel the need to dominate the conversation, but she would not tolerate unfairness. And while stress and drama might be swirling around her, Amber never lost her passion for fashion and a desire to look her best.
"So, with Amber in our hearts, our admonition to all who support our 18th annual Walk for Amber: listen more, care about justice, and always - always - look your best."
With our heartfelt gratitude,
Debbie and Dan Bernier-Sontag
Brattleboro
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at [email protected].