A formal dance, a silent auction and an art bid auction that will extend to the end of September have been scheduled to raise funds for the Brianna Mundy Memorial Scholarship Fund at Emporia State University.
The 19-year-old died from an embolism in her lung on Feb. 2, 2008, at her grandparents’ home, where she was recovering from surgery two months before, according to her mother, Vivian Steavenson-Mundy.
“Brianna’s Dance” will be held tonight from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. in the Colonial Ballroom of the Memorial Union at ESU. The cost is $12 per person, and tickets are available at 1101 Commercial St. and at the door. The dance is sponsored by Phi Delta Theta fraternity and Disability Services at the university, where Mundy was a student.
Contributions to the scholarship fund also may be sent to Mike Crouch at the Sauder Alumni Center, 1500 Highland St., Emporia KS 66801.
Steavenson-Mundy said that the scholarship will not be for any single category of ESU student.
“She had so many things that she loved to do,” she said. “She was into language, she was into music and art.”
Mundy was a charter member of the revitalized Young Republicans Club and also was a member of ANIME. She had enjoyed traveling to Europe, particularly, and had scheduled a trip to Japan for the summer of 2008.
She worked as a volunteer at the Emporia Day Care Center and at the Emporia Animal Shelter and played piano and guitar, her mother said.
Although Brianna needed a wheelchair to go from place to place, she did not let the chair prevent her from going where she wanted and doing what interested her.
“Her life inspired us all to live life to the fullest and to be the best we could be,” Steavenson-Mundy said.
A costume ball is planned in the fall, as family and friends continue the effort to raise $10,000 for an endowed scholarship in Brianna’s name. More information will be announced later about the bid auction for several art pieces, including a Rembrandt van Rijn etching that Steavenson-Mundy said has been certified as authentic.