Jamie Rice and friend
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Information on Scholarships
The Jamie Rice Scholarships
The RFNBS created the
scholarships to honor Jamie Rice who enjoyed the school and charmed
those who attended.
Each year, on the last
day of the school, the RFNBS committee awards the scholarships that
cover the tuition for the next year's school.
Throughout this year's
school, there will be forms available so people can nominate youngsters
who they see acting in an exemplary manner. The committee will select
from these and will award three scholarships for next year to one youth,
one junior youth, and one child.
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| About Jamie
by Teresa Rice |
Jamie was born on Nov 29th, 1968 in Gallup
New Mexico. Little did we know that his backwards beginning (he was
born feet first ) would remain his style in many ways. He was
immediately surrounded by a loving Baha'i community. Many of Gallup
community members spent the first days together in prayer when it
seemed that his journey into this world might be very short indeed.
He spent the next two months in that small hospital nursery much of
it head to head with another Baha'i baby and under the loving care
of Sister Chris. She sang, she prayed, she talked and she
loved him. For many years he looked for her anytime he heard someone
speak with a German accent.
In February he was released from the
hospital and returned to our home in Ft Defiance, AZ. In June of that
year we all moved to Sacramento with our dear friends Pat and Chuck
Fanning. Jamie still looked like a little old man, long and skinny with
fringes of pale blond hair. He continued to do things backwards by
cutting molars before he had front teeth. When he was two and just
beginning to try to sit up by himself we moved to West Virginia. As we
raced across the country trying to stay ahead of the snowstorm Jamie
made an amazing discovery - there were some foods he actually liked to
eat! This made all of our lives easier and he began to grow in both size
and strength.
We lived several places in WV: Ft. Gay, Huntington, and
Bluefield. While we were in Bluefield Jamie started to school at Green
Acre outside of Huntington, two days a week at first but he really
seemed to enjoy it and about this time began to try to stand. He also
became an older brother at this time and for a short time was also the
big brother but Ben quickly outgrew him. With the move to Huntington
came the opportunity to go to school every day and purchase the special
shoes that allowed him to walk independently. Boy, was he proud. This
was also 1975 and he was one of the first children to benefit from
public law 94-142 which said that all children regardless of their
handicaps could go to public school. So when we moved to Bluefield, off
to public school he went. It was still a very segregated situation but
transportation was provided and we didn't have to pay tuition. Jamie
always loved to ride the school bus, of course he was usually asleep
before they covered the first mile but he loved the bus. Bluefield
was one of the mass-taught communities so there wasn't a strong Bahá'í
group but there were often Bahá'ís traveling through so we got to meet
all kinds of people.
Southern WV formed a cluster long before anyone else, as friends from
Bluefield, Princeton, Athens and other places joined together. Dianne
Bayless gave both boys many happy hours by recording stories for them to
listen to as well as just by being Dianne. Jamie seemed to know how Ed
Grych felt about messes and delighted in finding new ways to get Ed
"messy."
In 1981 we moved to Chattanooga. Jamie went to school
at Orange grove; he didn't get to ride the bus everyday since I was
working and it was easier to pick him up than to risk missing the bus
connection. It was an active Baha'i community and he frequent statement
was "My go Baha'i now" and he did.
He considered himself a part of the community, and when he became 15 the
LSA agreed to write to NSA and submit his membership card. It was
probably 1984 before we got all the paperwork done. Going to Baha'i
school became an even more important part of his life. Once we moved to
Georgia there seemed to be more schools to go to. What was then the AL
school quickly became his favorite, there was always music and lots of
people to talk to. I think it was the Mantovallo school where he first
met Mike and Bev Rodgers. Mike quickly became almost as much a hero as
Steve Hampton. Have guitar Jamie will follow. Georgia was also the place
where Jamie went to "real" High School. At first it was a terrifying
experience for his mother but he grew up so much and learned so many
things I never dreamed he could do. He graduated in June 1990. He was
ready to go to work and make money but the real world wasn't quite ready
for him, so he attended an adult day program, earning some money doing
piece work and spending time with his friends.
Going to all kinds of Baha'i activities but especially to schools
continued to be some of Jamie's favorite activities, but you could tell
that each year it got a little more difficult for him. The desire to go
was there but the physical energy was less and less. So sometimes he
would be grouchy and even more stubborn than usual. My parents had
introduced Jamie to the beach which became another favorite place to go.
Combining the beach and Baha'i school was a plan made just for him so
when the school moved to Gulf Shores and then to Pensacola Beach he was
ecstatic.
The first weekend in November 2001 we made our trip to the
Royal Falcon school; as usual it was wonderful. We returned home to
life as usual, on Friday November 9th Jamie moved on to the next world.
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