Last night’s Staples Tuition Grants ceremony was a highlight of graduation season.
81 students received $420,000 in scholarships, at Staples Tuition Grants’ annual ceremony. The average award — $5,186 per recipient — is a record in STG’s 85-year history.
But the greatest highlights were speeches honoring Perrin Delorey. A 4th grader at Greens Farms Elementary School when he died in an automobile accident, he would have graduated this month with Staples’ Class of 2026.
Philip worked with his uncle and aunt, James and Angela Delorey, his mother Kara Sullivan, and his and Perrin’s classmates, to endow a new Perrin Delorey Do Your Best Award. Philip and James spoke lovingly of the legacy Perrin set, and of the importance of remembering and honoring him.
Their words brought tears to many in the Staples library. They deserve a wider audience too. Philip said:
Thank you all so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here tonight. I know this time of the year is pretty crazy.
Standing in front of you right now is an experience that is hard to put into words. I see a room filled with classmates, friends, families, and community members coming together to celebrate something so wonderful. I am so blessed that I was among the many that had a role in making it happen.
Philip Sullivan, at last night’s Staples Tuition Grants ceremony. (Photo/Dan Woog)
I think I speak for all of my graduating classmates when I say that high school is a journey with many challenges and self-discoveries. It is for this reason that graduation is so special to all of us.
Collectively and individually, we have completed tasks and achievements that in some cases were beyond our wildest dreams. And now, the universe of possibilities opens for us as we prepare to take steps toward college, career development, and an endless sea of choices for how we continue following our hopes and dreams. The mere idea of graduating from a school life that we have known since we were little kids, and entering the world as adults is sometimes more exciting than I can fathom.
As a 4th grader in Westport, my cousin Perrin was just like any of us at that age. He was playful, silly, quirky, had countless inside jokes and funny games that he shared with me and his friends — and like the rest of us, he was full of hopes and dreams.
He loved fancy cars and international travel. He played many sports, baseball and hockey being his favorites. Together we endured religion classes, shared holiday traditions and piano recitals and karaoke nights, and produced our own home movies. I am sure that many in the Class of 2026 see a bit of themselves in their memory of who Perrin was as a kid.
Philip Sullivan created these sports cards honoring his cousin, and passed them out to last night’s Tuition Grants recipients.
When Perrin’s life ended, my class faced a new reality that many of us had likely never considered — understanding our own vulnerability and wondering what would happen to our own dreams.
But almost as instantly as he was gone, a tremendous wave of community support swarmed in to aid the blow to our elementary school spirits.
Several good samaritans from Westport Little League organized a way for us to be together as a community. Friends, family, coworkers and acquaintances from near and far showed up. They let me and my family know that we weren’t alone in our grief. The communities of Westport, our schools, our clubs, our friends immediately saw solidarity in being together and there for each other at an otherwise very difficult time.
To my Aunt Angela and Uncle James, and to my grandparents also here tonight: your strength and love continues to inspire us all.
It’s this same spirit of widespread support and love, centralized in Westport and spanning beyond our town borders, that came together this fall and spring, to raise the more than necessary funds to establish the Perrin Ryan Delorey Do Your Best Award.
Perrin Delorey, with a Little League game ball he was awarded.
Just as Perrin represented the young kid in all of us as Westport 4th graders, the Staples graduates represent the best of Westport youth. The recipients of the Perrin Ryan Delorey Do Your Best Award receive not only the gift of a scholarship to help them achieve their dreams, but the reminder that they come from a community that loves and believes in them so much, that hundreds of donors made generous contributions of all sizes, to support them in their dreams, in honor of a life lost too early.
This year’s recipients are near and dear to me because they have been my friends and classmates since I was in kindergarten. Just like Perrin represented all of us when we were in 4th grade, these recipients represent the class of 2026.
They are hard working, kind, unique, strong, and filled with hopes and dreams. If there was ever a way to turn a tragedy into something joyful and hopeful, it is through the awarding of the Perrin Ryan Delorey Do Your Best Award to some of Staples High School’s brightest and most deserving students. I am filled with gratitude to have been able to help facilitate establishing this award.
I am eternally grateful to the community of people that helped us remember Perrin through the students of today and the future. And I especially want to thank my mom, Kara Sullivan, for all of the help and support she has given. This scholarship truly wouldn’t have been possible without you.
Thank you to my Westport community, friends, family members and all who support me and our class by remembering Perrin. And congratulations to Jordan and Dylan.
(For more information on Staples Tuition Grants — including how to donate to the Perry Ryan Delorey Do Your Best Award, and others — click here.)
