Ronald DeJesus Araujo would have been somebody great, everyone who knew him agrees. But an automobile accident in May 2004 ended the 19-year-old’s promising future. His family and friends raised funds to establish a scholarship at the Foundation that would remember his athleticism, school achievement, and generosity of spirit.

Mr. Araujo was a year old when his parents, Henry and Vilma, and his brothers, John and Henry Jr., and he moved to Rhode Island from their native Colombia, the town of Barranquilla.

Sports were the first sign of a bright future. As a young boy, he played baseball, basketball, and soccer, and starred in all of them. At 11, though, having visited his homeland and seen the national game played at its best, his choice was made.  By the time he graduated from Tolman High School, Ronald Araujo was captain of its soccer team, and an All Star player for four years.

Despite the time-consuming sports, his schoolwork was impressive, too. In his senior year, he was included in the National Honor Roll, a listing of the nation’s top five percent of high school students.

But beyond the sports and educational achievements, there was a kind and generous soul, a best friend to many, and a boy who loved his family and community.

“Despite his accomplishments, he always had his head straight,” states brother Henry Jr. “That’s what he stood for. He was disappointed that he couldn’t donate blood until he was 18, but as soon as he did, he started donating blood every six months. Then he tried to get the rest of us to donate blood. He kept saying, ‘For every pint you give, you help three people!’”

His mother Vilma tells another story: in junior high school, Ronald Araujo had given all his savings to a fundraiser for a schoolmate who had cancer and was going for a final trip to Disneyworld.

“I asked him why he did that with all his savings. And he answered, ‘Ma, I’ll still be alive to make money. I’ll get money again.’”

Mr. Araujo took these fine qualities to Johnson & Wales University, enrolling in Business Administration. “’I’m going to be somebody great in life,’ he always told me,” his mother says. “He wanted to own his own business. He was always planning. Once he asked me, ‘Mom, do you think I have the right attitude?’ I told him, ‘I believe whatever you put your mind to, you’ll be able to do.’”

Several people suggested a scholarships at Tolman and Johnson & Wales in his name.

“For Hispanics, it’s traditional to give money to the family to help with funeral expenses. But we said, the expenses for the funeral were our responsibility. We put aside all the gifts for this other.”

“It began with just a few thousand dollars,” says his cousin Eunice Delahoz. “But just a few months later, everybody was participating, everybody responded. People were just so generous, who knew him, who knew the parents.”

Mrs. Araujo concludes, “The words came back from what he would tell me, that ‘I’m going to be somebody great, people will know me.’ And I said, ‘Yes, people will know him’. Not the way I expected, or that Ronald expected. But his name will go on. And this will make that happen.”