Our History

The Brandon Magalassi Memorial Scholarship Foundation was founded in 2004 by Billy and Michele Magalassi after the death of their son, Brandon.   He had just completed the 8th grade.  Brandon was an honor student, a member of the National Junior Honor Society and an Owasso Ram football player.  He had a passionate love of animals.  Brandon survived 9 days in the hospital, including his birthday of 15 years. Brandon provided his life-saving organs to save others. Our Foundation encourages organ donation through Lifeshare of Oklahoma, www.lifeshareoklahoma.org.

We value life, and we value our youth board members.  Our WE MATTER campaign was the brainchild of Hannah Coker in 2013 , a former youth board member. It’s the concept of “I Matter, You Matter, We Matter…everyone matters to someone and every life is precious”. We have continued our We Matter campaign ever since.

Scholarships

Through 2023, we have awarded $130,000 to 130 deserving students in the Owasso / Collinsville area.  Scholarships are a one-time award of $1,000 and available to Owasso and Collinsville area graduating high school seniors. Scholarships are competitive and based on essays submitted by the students. Essays written by the scholarship recipients are posted on our website.

Advocacy, Education and Community Outreach

For 12 years running through 2018, the Foundation hosted an annual Shadow “Run” Suicide Prevention Symposium. Over those years, Shadow Run topics included several risk factors that can lead to suicide such as depression, bullying, self-harm, cyberbullying, and prescription drug abuse.  We also featured several panel discussions with suicide survivors and offered suicide prevention training.

The Foundation’s current focus is to educate the community primarily through We Matter Week, held annually in September, which is National Suicide Prevention Month. During this special week, suicide prevention training is held for local high school students, We Matter t-shirts are distributed at area high schools, and the message of “We Matter” is spread through student-led activities and through our social media.  The We Matter Suicide Awareness Car, Truck and Bike Show kicks off We Matter Week and serves to bring suicide awareness to the community during this special week.