The Board of Directors of the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame have named Pam and Mike McCarty as recipients of the 2022 Billy Schrivner Distinguished Service Award.
Pam and Mike will be inducted when ceremonies for the 36th Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame are held at 6:30 p.m., April 14, at the Carl Perkins Civic Center.
Grace Media Group visited with Pam McCarty for a Question and Answer session.
Question: You and Mike are native Jacksonians. Would you tell us how you met and tell us about your family and careers.
Answer: Mike and I were high school sweethearts and married in March 1977. We went to high school here at Jackson Central-Merry where Mike played football and basketball and I was a cheerleader.
I went to college at University of Tennessee at Martin and graduated with a degree in Elementary Education.
I taught in the Jackson Madison County School system until I retired in 2010, and then began teaching education at the University of Memphis at Lambuth when it opened until present.
Mike graduated from Lambuth University and had his career in sales and then as a Branch Manager of Tri State Trucks in Jackson.
He has retired and is now working part time for Integrated Marketing System in Jackson.
We had two children Kirk, 39, lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife, Erica and two daughters, Ellie Morgan and Claire, and Morgan who was attending UT Knoxville as a junior when we lost her in 2006 from a hit-and-run driver.
We founded the McCarty-Britt Bill in 2008 through the Legislature of the State of Tennessee to help strengthen Hit-and-Run laws for the State of Tennessee.
We attend First United Methodist Church, where Mike teaches and I have a support group, ‘Grace for Grief,’ for parents that have lost children.
Mike enjoys golfing and I enjoy gardening and several book clubs we love traveling to Charleston to see the granddaughters.
Question: You founded the Morgan Leah McCarty Memorial Scholarship Foundation in memory of your daughter. The fund began as a golf classic, a dance and silent auction. How has it changed?
Answer: We thought the first year would be all we would do, but with the help of friends, family, and the Board of the Scholarship Foundation, we have been able to continue the Golf Classic, for 15 years.
We formed a 501C non-profit charitable organization. At the beginning, we wanted to build our scholarship fund, so we had dances connected to the weekend of the golf tournament with silent auctions.
We were very successful with those and had them for about 10 years. We also had benefits, of other music venues, like Live at the Barn, with area artists contributing.
Question: There were a different number of avenues you could have taken when you began raising funds. Did you have any other ideas in mind for the funds instead of scholarships for high school students?
Answer: The idea for the scholarship in Morgan’s memory began with friends, Danny Ridgeway, and Greg Yates suggesting the fund and direct it to help college students with their education.
From there, the idea for golf tournament seemed to be a good fit for the fund. It was a tribute to Morgan to help students continue their education in college and an idea that I think she would be proud of.
Question: When did you first begin awarding scholarships, and how do you determine who receives a scholarship, and how many scholarships are awarded each year?
Answer: We began that first year awarding two scholarships for $1,000 each. As we raised our funds each year we added to the number of students we were helping and to the scholarship amount.
We gave three then added one to the Jackson Sports Hall of Fame Scholarship program for several years.
Last year we gave three $5,000 scholarships to area students for college totaling $15,000. This year 2022, we will give three $7,500 scholarships to students totaling $22,500.
Our basis for the scholarship has always been on need of the student and we like to support the Jackson area that has supported us all of these years by choosing local students.
We have a scholarship committee that chooses each year and applications are online and are due by May 31 of each year. www.morganmemsch.com
Question: You started presenting scholarships during the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. Would you tell how the program has grown since its inception?
Answer: We have had many scholarship recipients tell us that they would not have been able to go to college without our financial help.
One student told us their mother had just lost her job and did not know where the money would come from for her to continue her schooling.
This scholarship came at a moment when the family had nowhere to turn. Another one had family medical bills since the injury of a parent and could not afford funds for college.
One student was working, helping to support her siblings and needed help. Stories like this every year come to us and hopefully we can make a difference to some each year.
We began with hopes of having a fundraiser one, two years, and the success of each year spurred us on to continue.
The total has reached 57 scholarships since the beginning and totals over $200,000. We take pride in having all donated money going to scholarships.
Question: Did you ever imagine the program would become what it has become today?
Answer: Not in our wildest dreams did we think it would grow to what it is today.
We give thanks to our friends, our family, and the Board of Directors for being there and supporting us all the way.
We could not have done any of this without their help. We could not have imagined having an endowed scholarship that will continue scholarships for years to come.
Because of her big heart and her kindness to others, this scholarship foundation will certainly be a part of Morgan’s legacy.
John Collins, Tommy Dean, AJ Merriweather, James Parker and Jennifer Moore-Wilkerson will also be inducted into the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame.
For more information – tickets and reservations, call Beth Sedberry (731) 616-8558.
(PHOTO: Mike and Pam McCarty)
