Windham senior Freese first recipient of Pat Moody Foundation scholarship

By Matt Pascarella

During Windham’s senior awards night at Windham High School last month, the first Pat Moody Foundation scholarship was presented to senior Braycen Freese in the amount of $2,500. The Pat Moody Foundation was created after the passing of beloved Windham resident Pat Moody who loved this town and was a champion for the local sports community and its youth.

Members of the Pat Moody Foundation gather after awarding 
the first Pat Moody Foundation Scholarship at Windham High
School during Senior Awards Night on Thursday, June 5 to
WHS senior Braycen Freese. Back from left are Todd
Hamilton, Geoff Grigsby, Chad Pulkkinen, George McCrillis,
Jedidiah Merrill, Tyler Graves, and David Harrigan. Front
from left are Tracey Lydon, Braycen Freese and
Sherma Moody. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA 

“He was like a second father to me,” said Freese. “When I saw the scholarship go up, it was an opportunity to be felt in his name again and he’s still around in my life. He was a mentor to me, through basketball, through life, through school – every part of my life, he was a role model. It’s a great thing to be the first one, just when I see his name and my name next to each other, it brings joy to my heart. If I was ever having trouble with sports, with school, he was always there to talk, he was always teaching me new things whenever I was struggling ... he would teach me new things to get through the humps. He always celebrated me more than I celebrated myself, so he made me feel special.”

Freese said he applied to honor Moody’s name. Freese consulted his basketball coach, Chad Pulkkinen, on what he should say in his essay; Pulkkinen’s advice to Freese was to just write what was in his heart.

“Braycen is a great kid, he’s top 10 in his class,” said Pat Moody Foundation Executive Committee board member Geoff Grigsby. “He graduated a year early; he had a real strong connection with Pat. As a board, our primary focus is to be an extension of Pat; live by the model ‘What would Pat do?’ Braycen meant a ton to him and vice-versa – someone who was instrumental to Braycen’s athletic achievements. There were such strong candidates, and we wanted to help as many people as we can within reason; we thought broadening (the scholarship) to three people was the right move.”

The Pat Moody Foundation was impressed with all applicants; they added two additional $1,000 scholarships; those winners were seniors Stella Jarvais and Lukas Hammond. It was very difficult for the Pat Moody Foundation board to decide on who the winner should be – everyone’s resume was so strong, and each applicant had done so much to meet the criteria. Each applicant got a “Moody’s Army” T-shirt, which is representative of people who’ve gone above and beyond in the community.

“We wanted civic-minded, well-rounded individuals, said Moody’s best friend and Pat Moody Foundation board member Tyler Graves. “We wanted student-athletes, just because that was kind of Pat’s medium in terms of connecting with kids. They all had amazing GPAs and cumulative scores, their citizenship and volunteerism were beautiful; they had to write an essay of how they were deserving and what Pat meant to them, plus a letter of recommendation from a coach or a teacher.”

Graves said Freese’s essay really stuck out because it delved into how much Moody affected him and shaped him over the past few years and that was really touching to Graves; this person knew Moody and the way they described Moody’s impact really tugged at Graves’ heart strings.

“I’m just honored to win” said Freese, who will attend the University of Maine Orono and major in mechanical engineering and then plans to attend law school. He is still deciding if he’d like to become a private attorney or mechanical engineer. <