Every year, our foundation awards the Genna Martinez Meaningful Life Award scholarship to one graduating student from Connetquot High School. The scholarship is given to a student that writes an essay about a defining moment in his or her life and how it has changed his or her life.
Complete description: This award is given in remembrance of a thoughtful and selfless 2013 Connetquot graduate, Genna Martinez. Genna was the type person who naturally put others before herself both in and out of the classroom. To Genna, being the best you could be meant helping people without being asked and without recognition. Genna was the kind of person whose smile lit up a room and whose laugh was contagious. Throughout her days in Connetquot and her short college career, she touched the lives of classmates, teammates, friends, and teachers through her positive attitude, compassion for others and love of life. Life to Genna was about enjoying each and every moment with family, friends, and acquaintances; she was a social butterfly who shared her wings with everyone she met. Even in her passing, Genna continued to help others through donating four of her organs to save three lives. Today, her legacy of kindness lives on in someone who shares her values. This meaningful life award will be bestowed upon the student who has continuously displayed the same characteristics and beliefs, a person whose core being emulates the very soul and spirit of who she was.