Kamryn Lambert Foundation Aids Future Medical Professionals

Dabi Katzenberger faced a tragedy in September 2007 when her granddaughter Kamryn Lambert passed away from leukemia, but rather than allowing the tragedy to put her life on hold, Katzenberger has taken an opportunity to help others through the Kamryn Lambert Foundation.

The Foundation offers scholarships to graduating seniors from local high schools in order to help them get through nursing school. Currently, three $3,000 scholarships are available: one at Northeast High School, one at Chesapeake High School and one at any high school in the state.

"The students have to be pursuing nursing or some other type of medical field in college," said Lambert. "We're not really GPA-based...we're more interested in the reasons behind the person's interest in the medical field. Applicants also have to write an essay about obstacles that they've had to overcome to be successful in high school."

Katzenberger added that the Foundation would also offer assistance to scholarship winners if they needed further financial aid to get through nursing school.

Currently there are 18 volunteers working for the Kamryn Lambert Foundation.

The Foundation holds several events, including an annual Bull and Oyster Roast that will takes place in March.

"In February we have Cuts for Kamryn, which is our haircut-a-thon," said Katzenberger. "There are two salons in Pasadena that give over their salons on a Sunday. Stylsits come over from all around Anne Arundel County and all the money that's earned goes to our scholarship fund. This is the second year we've been doing this."

The Foundation began when Kamryn passed away in 2007. It was recently designated a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization.

"A lot of people had made donations to us for different reasons," said Katzenberger. "We found that we had about $1,200 left over. We decided, as a birthday gift to Kamryn after she passed away, that we were going to take that money and make a nursing scholarship out of it. We'd give it to a graduating senior Northeast High School in Pasadena where her parents and all my children attended."

"It just kind of grew from there."