First, if you're approaching the age of 45, get screened for colon cancer. Just do it. Do it for yourself and for the people who love you, whether or not you ever knew or listened to Jamie Samuelsen. Do it even if you're perfectly healthy. It will cost you an hour and it might save your life.
If you did know Jamie, if you listened to him on 97.1 The Ticket or watched him on Fox 2, if you shared his love for Detroit sports and want to honor his memory after he passed away at the age of 48 last August due to colon cancer, here's one awesome way to do it: consider a donation to the scholarship in his name at his alma mater Northwestern. Any amount counts. Personally, I think 97 dollars and one cent would be pretty cool. $9.71 works, too!
The James K. Samuelsen scholarship was started by a group of Jamie's friends and fraternity brothers, including his pledge trainer (and longtime Big Ten Network host) Dave Revsine. "Somehow he forgave me for that," Revsine said Friday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. It will help defray the cost of tuition each year for a Northwestern undergrad who's interested in sports journalism.
The fund is just a couple thousand dollars shy of its $100,000 target. At that point, the scholarship will be endowed in perpetuity.
"As long as there is a Northwestern University, there will be a James K. Samuelsen scholar every year," Revsine said.
Not that it's any surprise, but Revsine said Jamie was "everything you would want in a fraternity brother." He said he was "beloved in our house from the word go." He said he was "smart, funny and just fun to hang out with," and all of us here would agree. Most of us weren't nearly as smart.
This is a way to keep Jamie's memory alive. Ultimately forever. As Revsine said, "There's so much impermanence in the world and certainly in what we do." This will be permanent. It will be around when the Lions win a Super Bowl -- "and yes, I really believe the Lions will win it one day," Jamie once wrote in his station bio.
Moreover, it will have a lasting effect on someone else, someone with Jamie's same passions and dreams.
"I love the idea that our group of friends will be able to take this person under our wing each year and tell them what a special person Jamie was. And then I hope Jamie’s kids will pick up the mantle and do the same thing and then hey, in the year 2075 there’s someone coming in as a Jamie Samuelsen scholar," Revsine said.
Again, the fund is just a couple thousand dollars short of its goal. It will get home with our help, like a runner at third and less than two outs. It's a perfect way to memorialize Jamie, because it would mean something to him and help someone else. On top of all that, it's tax deductible! You just have to look past making a donation to hoity-toity Northwestern. We kid. (But seriously, it's tax deductible.)
"All of the money that is donated will be specifically used for the scholarship," said Revsine. "Give whatever you can. If it’s 10 bucks, great. Every little bit matters."
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