![This year’s Dan Snyder Memorial Scholarship recipients Matthew Leger, Marlowe Schott and Mitch Wright were flanked by Graham and Lu Anne Snyder Wednesday evening during an awards presentation in Waterloo. [Scott Barber / The Observer]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/post_scholarship.jpg)
The 2015 recipients of the Dan Snyder Memorial Scholarships were honoured Wednesday evening with a barbeque and a plaque presentation at Graham and Lu Ann Snyder – Dan’s parents – Waterloo home.
Marlowe Schott, Mitch Wright and Matthew Leger will each receive $1,600 from the scholarship fund to help further their post-secondary educations.
“We are very pleased to have you all with us here tonight to celebrate your achievements,” Graham Snyder told a small gathering. “When Dan passed away, we had a lot of support from the hockey world, and one of the things that happened shortly after he died, was that two teams, Detroit and Atlanta had a game around New Years and they auctioned the jerseys off that they wore that night and that became the start of the scholarship fund, along with some other money that was donated. So the NHL Players Association was very key in getting this going. Over the years there have been 38 scholarships given out to young athletes in Woolwich. School was always important to Dan, he had the opportunity to get some college courses while he played hockey and he attended Elmira District Secondary School for the first few years of his high school career, and he was well known for his determination and his drive to succeed, and he was able to do that at the same time as getting himself an education and looking out for lots of other people, too.”
An Elmira native and Sugar King alumnus, Dan Snyder became a local hockey hero after rising from a single hockey player in the Woolwich Minor Hockey Association all the way to the NHL as a member of the Atlanta Thrashers. Tragically, Snyder was killed in a car accident in Atlanta, Georgia in October of 2003.
For the last 11 years, the Dan Snyder Memorial Scholarship has been awarded to athletes in Woolwich who display sportsmanship, dedication, and determination.
A Sugar King for four years, Mitch Wright was a key scorer in the club’s Cherrey Cup run last season. He will now move on to play CIS hockey at Wilfrid Laurier University while pursuing a degree in kinesiology.
“This obviously means a lot and I am very honoured to receive the award,” Wright said. “Growing up in Owen Sound, I had heard of Dan Snyder, and then to move to his hometown to play hockey, and to now receive this award, it’s pretty neat.”
Marlowe Schott is an Elmira native who graduated from EDSS this past spring and is heading to the University of Guelph to study molecular biology and genetics.
“I am flattered to receive this scholarship,” Schott said. “I am a very community oriented person, and Dan Snyder, and what he represents to this community, it is a real honour.”
Matthew Leger is a West Montrose native who attended EDSS and played in the Woolwich Minor Hockey system. He will be attending the commerce program at Queen’s University in Kingston this fall.
“I spent my entire hockey career playing Elmira hockey in Woolwich, and playing and refereeing on the Dan Snyder ice surface was always really special,” Leger said. “I am extremely honoured to receive this scholarship in his memory.”
