On August 23, the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation will make the first distribution from the Patti Rose Scheimer Bednarik Memorial Scholarship Fund, a fund created in 2014 to celebrate and honor late Harrisburg lawyer Patti Bednarik, founder and first chair of the Animal Law Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, leader in animal law reform and compassionate animal welfare volunteer who practiced what she preached.
The $5,400 scholarship will be awarded to Nichole Ehrheart, second year law student at Duquesne School of Law who demonstrated outstanding legal scholarship in the area of pet food labeling practices and extensive volunteer service to two animal welfare organizations in western Pennsylvania.
The Patti Rose Scheimer Bednarik Memorial Scholarship Fund was created by Patti’s husband Joseph Bednarik to support the annual award of a scholarship to a law school student who pursues an interest in animal welfare as part of his/her daily activities and legal training or grant to a young lawyer who pursues an interest in animal welfare as part of his/her daily activities or law practice. It is a wonderful way to celebrate Patti’s life and life’s work of protecting animals, reforming the state’s animal laws and mentoring those who chose to use their law degrees to ensure better treatment for animals.
Beginning this year on May 21 (Patti’s birthday) and on May 21 of each successive year, the Fund solicits applications from Pennsylvania residents enrolled in law schools across the county and Pennsylvania lawyers in practice less than three years. The applicants’ volunteer service to animal welfare organizations, scholarship in the field of animal law and animal welfare and, for practicing attorneys, pro bono legal work in the field of animal welfare are carefully weighed and considered by the Foundation’s Scholarship Committee who works with the donor to select a candidate who best exemplifies the core criteria.
The annual award of the scholarship is always to be announced on August 23, a day Patti devoted to “celebration, introspection and reflection” and to trying something she’d never done before. Over the years, those experiences included once-in-a-lifetime adventures like tandem paragliding over the glaciers in Alaska, swimming with wild dolphins in New Zealand, biking through Jamaican rainforests and spiritual journeys closer to home that focused Patti on living the best life that she could, one that would never become boring and habitual.
The next application period will open on May 21, 2016 through July 15, 2016. Click here for additional information about the fund and the scholarship/grant initiative.
Click here and here to learn more about Patti Rose Scheimer Bednarik.
Click here to make a tax deductible contribution to the fund or here to download a mail-in contribution form.
