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 2024, we have awarded $142,500 to 135 deserving students in the Owasso, Collinsville and Skiatook communities.  In 2024, the Board increased the scholarships to a one-time award of $2,500 (previously $1,000), which are available to Owasso, Collinsville and Skiatook area graduating high school seniors. Scholarships are competitive and based on essays or videos submitted by the students.

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.

For 3 years running 2021 through 2023, the Foundation held the We Matter Car, Truck and Bike Show, spearheaded by Tara Newby. The event served to raise suicide awareness and prevention to the broader community.

The Foundation’s current and continuing focus is to educate the community primarily through We Matter Week, held annually in September, which is in conjunction with 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.