Soup and the generosity of the UW Tacoma community added to the coffers for the Amanda Dauron Memorial Scholarship. Last week’s Combined Fund Drive Soup Social raised an additional $344 for the new scholarship, which will help support students attending UW Tacoma. At the gathering in the GWP Terrace, lunch-goers sampled homemade soups for a $3 donation to the fund and listened to brief presentations about the scholarship, the UW Combined Fund Drive and Prison Pet Partnerships.

The scholarship is named after Amanda Dauron, a 17-year-old Gig Harbor teen who was struck and killed by a train in August 2010. Her mother, Danelle Dauron, works at UW Tacoma in the payroll office. Dauron had planned to attend UW Tacoma. Robert Hand, a maintenance mechanic with Facilities Services and member of the UW Tacoma Combined Fund Drive coordinating committee, came up with the scholarship idea as a way to carry on Dauron’s spirit.

Contributors can make a one-time or recurring gift to the Amanda Dauron Memorial Scholarship Fund through the UW Foundation online at https://www.washington.edu/giving/make-a-gift?source_typ=3&source=DAURON . Donations will be accepted any time of the year, but if contributors pledge to the scholarship memorial before April 13, 2012, their donations will receive a 50 percent match through the Step Up initiative. UW and other state employees can give directly to this or other Step Up Scholarships through payroll deduction by filling out this form online — http://www.tacoma.uw.edu/sites/default/files/global/documents/tac-stepup-payroll-deduction.pdf .