It is that time of year for 100 Club Scholarship applications to be rolling in. We appreciate all of the many public safety family members who take the time to apply….we are thrilled to be able to help support their education.
Each applicant is required to submit an original essay that shares information about themselves and how receiving a 100 Club scholarship would enable them to reach their life’s goals. The essays that are sent in are always interesting to read…allowing us to get a better feel for who exactly these young adults are. Each year we come across a few essays that really touch your heart and make you stand back in awe at what the applicant has gone through and how it changed his or her life. This year, Greg Schaper, son of catastrophically injured Tempe Police Sergeant John Schaper, submitted one such essay. Read on to find out more about this difficult experience through his eyes and how it shaped his life.
100 Club Scholarship Essay
By Gage Schaper
‘As a small child I lived in a world of innocence. War and conflict were things I had only learned of through history books and my father, a super hero in my eyes, had dedicated his life to protecting the peace. As for myself and my part, well, I didn’t have to worry about that. In fact, I had expected life to remain this way, a blissful existence in which everyone looked out for each other. At age seven, I became aware of how wrong my assumption had been.
I awoke to the news that my father, a Tempe Police Sergeant, had been shot while on duty and that he was currently in the hospital. At first, I took this in passing; in my mind a simple gunshot wound was of little concern. I had seen people get shot in dozens of action movies and they were always fine later, especially if they were a hero, and my father was most certainly a hero. My father often returned home from work with cuts, bruises, and a torn uniform, but always with a reassuring smile on his face. I all but fully believed that he would walk through that door the next day with that same smile.
It wasn’t long before I learned the truth, but I found that truth to be terrible. The bullet had entered his side and spiraled, tearing through his internal organs. The surgeons believed the wounds to be inevitably fatal and the Police Department was already making funeral arrangements. All that my family could do was pray; pray to see my father again, though our prospects seemed bleak. At some point, however, someone must have heard our desperate pleas and we received His answer. In what the surgeons could only describe as a miracle, their perseverance was suddenly met with success and my father’s condition began to improve.
When my father finally came home, it was nothing like I had expected. He slowly entered the front door, supported by family and friends as he was too weak to stand on his own. His wound was apparent, a giant surgical scar that ran down his entire stomach and was held closed by thick staples. His face had no smile, just a sincere look of fatigue and pain. I was happy to see him, of course, but I was afraid to approach him, afraid that I would somehow exacerbate the pain he was already in. It was nothing like the movies.
In the months that my father spent recovering and undergoing even more surgeries, I began to reflect on what had occurred. The world had proven not be the innocent place I had previously thought it to be. Instead, I learned that it is populated by bad people who are willing to harm the innocent, but there are those who have dedicated their lives to protecting the innocent or even undoing the harm. During and after this ordeal my family became friends with the surgeons involved. One of these, Dr. Caruso of the Maricopa County Burns and Trauma Center, I have come to know very well and I find the amount of lives that this man has saved (enough to fill an entire stadium as one doctor had put it) to be absolutely amazing.
Looking at myself and at my future, I wondered where I was going to fit into this world and to what use was I going to put my skills. So far I had managed to hold straight A’s throughout elementary school without focusing too much on what I was doing. I decided from that point on, however, to focus my attention on my studies in the hope that I would one day be able to attend Medical School. I was going to become one of those death defying surgeons no matter how long it would take.
I soon realized, as I began taking more advanced classes, that I would have to sacrifice some things from my life. In order to find the extra time for studying and homework, I quit sports altogether and I have passed through most nights with only a few hours of sleep. As for my friends, I may only see them once a month outside of school and on two separate occasions I have had to say farewell to most of them while switching to a school in a different boundary because it offered better classes.
I hope that what I have sacrificed will pale in comparison to what I can achieve if I continue down this road. Gladly I make personal sacrifices and focus my energy into my education, reminding myself of when I was seven. It was at that age that, after hearing my father speak of the miracles that his doctors had performed, I made the decision to become a surgeon so that I too may have the chance to save a family from losing someone they love; a son from losing his father.
To accomplish my education, it will be necessary to use scholarships and grants that may be available to me. Because of his wounds, my father is now on a fixed medical disability retirement, and unable to provide the extra money necessary for me to attend college and medical school. He needs my mother to assist him at home, and she has no opportunity for fulltime employment or earnings. Due to my financial circumstance, please consider awarding me a 100 Club Scholarship.’
It is children like this that the 100 Club Scholarship program reaches out to help. In order to keep the scholarship program going, the 100 Club hosts a Scholarship Ball every September. If you are touched by Gage’s story please help us help others and consider becoming a sponsor or making a donation for this year’s event. Please call 602-485-0100 for more information.
