Video: CREATE and CDF Honor First Responders in Tupelo

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — As Tupelo and Lee County residents know from recent history, first responders often pay the ultimate sacrifice to protect the rest of us. And tonight the Create Foundation and the Community Development Foundation held a First Responders Appreciation Dinner at the Summit. The organizers felt it was an appropriate move in light of the December 23, 2013 bank robbery and shooting that claimed the life of Tupelo Police Sergeant Gale Stauffer. In fact they announced the establishment the Gale Stauffer Memorial Scholarship.

CREATE Foundation’s Gregg Pirkle said, “We wanted to have a permanent memorial to officer Stauffer to show our appreciation for what he did and his sacrifice and then to also show our appreciation for the first responders who continue to get out there everyday and risk their lives for us.”

Pirkle says the scholarship is open to any child of a first responder who is employed in Lee County.

There will be a priority given to first year college students. The scholarship will start out at $10,000.

It has not been determined just exactly how it might be divided up.