The Harness Horse Youth Foundation is pleased to announce that Maja Bown and Hannah Wieder have been selected as recipients of the Gallo Blue Chip Scholarship.
The scholarship, sponsored by Martin Scharf, honours the gelding who retired as the richest pacer of all time. Scharf campaigned Gallo Blue Chip during his illustrious career. Bown and Wieder will be honoured at a special dinner and winner’s circle ceremony at the Meadowlands Racetrack later this year.
"I'm so honoured to have received this scholarship, as it relieves some of the financial burden of obtaining my college education," said Bown, who will receive the $15,000 stipend. She is currently studying nursing and wellness at the University of New Hampshire, which will allow her to enter a nursing program after graduation. She hopes to positively affect more people through nursing than she would have been able to as a dietician. She is particularly interested in oncology, as she lost her father to cancer while she was in the sixth grade. Bown was the recipient of the Curt Greene Scholarship from HHYF in 2016. She has worked at a number of New Jersey stables during summer break.
“I was so unbelievably excited to hear the news about the scholarship. My parents have done and sacrificed so much for me over the years that I want to make them proud,” said $5,000 Gallo Blue Chip recipient Hannah Wieder, of Yonkers, New York. She will attend Quinnipiac University to study Diagnostic Medical Sonography. Once she has her degree, she will move into an accelerated nursing program. Getting involved in medicine is something that is near and dear to Wieder, as she was born three months prematurely and spent several months in neonatal intensive care. A graduate of Maria Regina High School, Hannah is an after school religious teacher, a Eucharistic minister and has volunteered at White Plains Hospital, where she was born. Her father Alex campaigns a small stable at Yonkers Raceway.
For more information on HHYF Scholarships, head to hhyf.org/hhyf-scholarships. The organization also maintains a harness racing scholarship database at hhyf.org/industry-scholarships.
(HHYF)