Thursday, September 5, 2019

Taylor Martin Memorial Game - September 9, 2019


Nearly four years ago, our community lost a dear friend, teammate, and Original General as Taylor Martin was taken from us on September 10th, 2015. Taylor embodied LEADERship through peacemaking, care, and friendship. To honor and celebrate her life, Thomas Nelson High School will host the Nelson County Lady Cards in our annual Taylor Martin Memorial Game. Led by the Legacy Core and Student Organization Council, the goal of this event is to bring together all members of the community to connect and celebrate, much like Taylor was able to do in her own life. Entry into the Memorial Game and its aligned activities will be donation-based, and all proceeds from the game will go directly to the Taylor Martin Memorial Scholarship Foundation.

The Game
The evening will feature a varsity soccer match between the Lady Cardinals of Nelson County and the Lady Generals of Thomas Nelson. The varsity game will begin at 7:00PM. A pre-game ceremony honoring Taylor's life is set to start at 6:45PM. Soccer alums of both Nelson County and Thomas Nelson are invited to participate in the ceremony.

Food and Social
We will host an "Ignite the Memory" social and tailgate to create a space for all members of the community to gather and connect before the game and throughout the evening. The social is set to begin at 5:30PM, and it will include food, drinks, games, and other activities. We will not host typical concessions so the social will serve as the main hub to get food and drinks. All food served at the game will be available to the public and will be sold on a donation-basis.

T-Shirts
We will also sell t-shirts that commemorate the Memorial Game and celebrate Taylor's life. The shirts will sell for $10.00, and profits from the sales will go to the scholarship foundation. See the image below for a rough sketch of the shirts. This year's shirts will be gray with purple font. Special thanks to Apparel and Awards Factory for getting these done so quickly.


Taylor Martin Memorial Scholarship Foundation
Finally, we have established a scholarship foundation to honor Taylor's life - The Taylor Martin Memorial Scholarship Foundation seeks to raise $10,000 contributing to an annual $1,000 scholarship to a graduating senior. This scholarship will be awarded to a senior female that represents peacemaking, CARE, and LEADERship. 2017 scholarship recipients were Laken Culver and Michaela Johnson, 2018 recipients were Julia Rogers and Grace Frederick, and the 2019 recipients were Maddie Byrd and Sabastian Downs.

How Can You Help Support?
All products to support the events described above have been ordered and purchased. Therefore, the main supports we need from our community are people to work the stations described above. We will need approximately 16-20 adult community members to support. Please reference our sign-up document (CLICK HERE) to review the supporting roles and to sign-up to work an event.

Next Steps: 
  1. CLICK HERE and share this information through a Facebook Post to help spread the word about the Taylor Martin Memorial Game. Encourage others to attend as well. All proceeds from the game go to the Taylor Martin Memorial Scholarship Foundation.
  2. Provide your support during the game and sign up to work an event.
  3. If you choose to write a check for your donation, please make checks out to "Taylor Martin Memorial Scholarship Foundation".
  4. Please reach to Coach Martin if you additional comments or questions.
Thank you for your support.