Ocampo Memorial Walk set for Saturday
Come Saturday, April 2, morning, Meridian Community College students, staff, faculty, administration, alumni, and community residents will take to the track.
Their efforts will support the first Tanya Renia Ocampo Memorial Walk, which will begin with registration from 8-8:45 a.m. and the walk from 9-11:30 a.m. Individuals or teams are welcomed.
In addition to vendors and community service booths, Todd Tilghman, pastor, singer, and winner of the national talent competition, The Voice, will sing and share. Tilghman and Ocampo knew each other, and Tilghman was Ocampo’s pastor.
“Our goals for this walk started simply: raise enough money each year to sponsor one scholarship in Tanya Ocampo’s name,” said Flora Sumrall, program coordinator and instructor for MCC’s Business Office Management Technology, who is leading the walk.
Proceeds from the walk will be earmarked to create an endowment for the Tanya Renia Ocampo Memorial Scholarship. Endowed funds differ from others in that the total amount of the gift is invested. Only a portion of the income earned is spent, while the remainder is added to the principle for growth. “Once we found out about an endowment, the students, my second-floor co-workers, and I were forced to think bigger,” Sumrall said. She added, “We hope to secure yearly scholarships through the Tanya Renia Ocampo Memorial Scholarship Endowment for a long time.”
Ocampo, an MCC instructor and program coordinator for the Medical Office Management
Technology Program, tragically died in November 2021.