- Credibility:
NORTH CENTER — A new Lane Tech High School scholarship will honor the memory of Sincere Ash, a Lane Tech student who died last year.
Ash, then a rising senior at Lane Tech, died one year ago when he was struck by a train in August 2018. The leftover funds from a successful GoFundMe campaign after his death that aimed to help his family pay for a memorial and funeral will now be used to fund the Sincere Ash Memorial Scholarship.
Joanna Maciaszkiewicz Perez, director of alumni relations at the Lane Tech Alumni Association, said two parents contacted the group to discuss launching a scholarship.
The GoFundMe raised a total of $32,016. The first $1,000 scholarship will be given out next year, she said, and the funds leftover in the account will allow for a scholarship in Ash’s name to be given out for at least the next five years.
“We thought it would be a beautiful way to honor him,” Perez said.
In order to expand the scholarship past the initial five years paid for via the GoFundMe campaign, the alumni association will collect additional donations for the Sincere Ash Memorial Scholarship here.
Tamara Peters Porfirio, who launched the initial GoFundMe, said Ash was “vibrant and charismatic” and full of “light, love and style.”
“Being with him was everyone’s favorite part of the day,” Porfirio said in an update to the GoFundMe announcing the new scholarship. “He passed away very unexpectedly, and this scholarship is given in memory of all the happiness he brought to his many friends.”
Ash’s death shocked the Lane Tech community. He was reported missing from Lollapalooza last year and was last seen alive in Grant Park in the afternoon of Aug. 5, 2018.
Friends and family spent hours of searching before they eventually heard the news: Ash died when he was hit by a train near the Clybourn Metra Station in the 2000 block of North Ashland Avenue nearly two hours after he was last seen.
The cause of his death was multiple injuries due to train striking pedestrian and the manner was undetermined, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
Metra police were not immediately available to provide an update on their investigation.
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