Determining the criteria for the scholarship was fairly easy. Recipients would have to be graduating St. Martha students who would attend an archdiocesan high school, just like the four of us. Recipients would have to be good students academically, because our parents always insisted that we do our best in all of our school work. Recipients would have to be in a family that would have difficulty affording a Catholic high school education without some form of financial assistance, to recognize the sacrifices our parents made to pay for our education. Recipients would have to be students who truly valued a Catholic education, like our parents did, and who were articulate enough to tell us, in an essay, why. And finally, because one of us was in medical school when our mother died and benefited from scholarships that were set aside for single parent families, we decided to give special consideration to students who had the love and support of only one parent.

Since 1995, the Patrick and Janet Smith Memorial Scholarship Fund has granted 56 four-year scholarships and 14 $1,000 grants, totaling over $400,000.00. This year we plan to award two (2) four-year scholarships of $12,000 each. Also, to ensure that the names of the winners of the scholarship are remembered throughout the years, we donated a plaque to St. Martha School. This plaque is hanging in a prominent place in the school and will list each recipient of the Smith Memorial Scholarship.