2026 wrap-up
It has been a little over three years since she passed away. Summer braved a year-long fight with medulloblastoma, a brain cancer she was diagnosed with in May 2022 at the end of her junior year at Southern Illinois University.
Summer was a little bit of everything. A geology major who raced cars at SCCA events, rode horses in 4-H, led the Maroon Guard Honor Team at SIU, and never turned down a board game. She drove across the country for a concert and collected National Park Junior Ranger badges everywhere we went. She graduated from Dee-Mack in 2019, and she never quit on her plans. She kept taking classes remotely from St. Jude in Memphis, and SIU awarded her Bachelor of Science degree after she passed.
Here’s what was done this past year in Summer’s name.
The Summer E. Stahl Memorial Scholarship
Every year a Dee-Mack graduate receives a $2,000 scholarship in Summer’s name. The fund started with the donations people tucked into cards at Summer’s visitation… the line was hours long. Bill Embry, Steve Yarnall and Margaret England sat down with us in October 2023 and helped us set it up through the Deer Creek-Mackinaw Education Foundation. Steve still keeps the books on it for us… deposits, donation letters, quarterly reports, all of it. We could not do this without the three of them.
Alia Grimm was our first recipient in 2024, attended Butler University. Our 2025 recipient, Rachel Paddock, is at Carthage College in Kenosha (Ironic!), Wisconsin. This spring, the committee picked Lincoln Rassi as our 2026 recipient. Principal Mitch Holmgren, once again read Summer’s story and presented the scholarship at Dee-Mack’s scholarship night in May.
So far we have given out three $2,000 educational scholarships, and there’s over $20,000 in the fund for kids going forward. Friends kept sending in gifts this year… one was even matched by Caterpillar! Most years we also hold a drawing at Fort’s Toyota for a golf bag and some golf swag, and it all goes to the scholarship. A member of the Toyota Land Cruiser Association has donated the bag more than once. This spring we moved the money out of a CD and into an investment account, so it can keep helping a Dee-Mack kid every year. For now it’s just Dee-Mack seniors… but if the fund grows enough, we would love to someday help kids at other schools around Tazewell County too.
No gift is too obscure, either. Don and his band put on a concert fundraiser for the scholarship. Josh Barnes, one of Summer’s St. Joseph classmates, wore her Sweet Dreams of Summer button while umpiring a baseball tournament, then donated to the fund. The kids are alright.
If you would like to give, make your check out to the Deer Creek-Mackinaw Education Foundation, write “Stahl Scholarship” in the memo line, and mail it to PO Box 621, Mackinaw, IL 61755. The Education Foundation will mail you a receipt letter for your taxes. (This is tax-deductible)
If you work for Caterpillar or retired from there, your gift can go a lot further. Caterpillar matches gifts of $25 or more dollar for dollar, and some years they have done a 2-to-1 match on Giving Tuesday. One friend’s $250 Giving Tuesday gift in 2024 turned into $750 for the scholarship!
Here’s how:
- Mail your check to the Deer Creek-Mackinaw Education Foundation as above, with “Stahl Scholarship” in the memo line.
- Go to the Caterpillar matching gifts page, find the foundation in the Caterpillar Cares search, and submit your match request.
- Get it in by January 31 of the year after you give. The foundation confirms the gift on their end.
Blood drives
A few times a year we host an American Red Cross blood drive in Summer’s memory. Linda Robinson runs them at the Delavan Baptist Church. The first one was in August 2023, just two months after we lost her.
Thank you to everyone who drives out to Delavan to give, and to the church folks who continue to honor her name.
The Mackinaw to St. Jude run
Summer spent a big part of her fight at St. Jude in Memphis, so the Mackinaw to St. Jude run means a lot to our family. Janet Murphy manages the run, and a section of it is set aside in Summer’s name. St. Joseph School in Pekin, where Summer went to school, also continues to donate to St. Jude in her name.
Every year it’s a reminder of the people at St. Jude who took care of her… and of the kids who are still there fighting.
A horsemanship award at the 4-H fair
Summer loved horses. So every year at the Tazewell County 4-H Fair, there’s a horsemanship award in her name, donated by Vera Betzelberger. Summer won that same award herself as a 4-H kid.
Watching those kids work with their horses is one of the best days of our year. Summer would have been right there at the fence cheering them on.
Thank you
None of this happens without a lot of people. First and foremost, everyone who has donated… your gifts are what started the wheel turning. Then Bill, Steve, Margaret, and the Deer Creek-Mackinaw Education Foundation board (There are others there as well, but those are the three who helped us get it started!). Natalie Putney and Mitch Holmgren at the high school. Linda and the Red Cross. Janet Murphy and the Mackinaw to St. Jude run crew and St. Joseph School. Vera Betzelberger and the Tazewell County 4-H. And everyone who has written a check, given blood, or just said Summer’s name out loud. (Its still hard for me to do)
THANK YOU!
We would rather have Summer here. Helping people and keeping it in her name is my catharsis.
Eric
#sweetdreamsofsummer
