Sharon Byrkett led the kind of life that most people would have found exhausting.  Being born with Muscular Dystrophy certainly didn’t slow her down.  When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001, she simply worked even harder.

Sharon, who received her degree in social work at IUPUI in 1984, was a role model and advocate for people with disabilities.  Somehow even those words fail to do justice to the effort Sharon put forth to improve the lives of  thousands of fellow Hoosiers before her death in October 2009.

Over the last 15 years, the work by this advocate brought hope to many people with disabilities. She was recognized by a variety of groups and was awarded the local and state “Outstanding Achievement Award for MDA as well as the “James Pauley Life Time Achievement Award.”

Sharon divided her talents among a number of groups. She served on the Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities, was the chairperson of the council’s Community Living Committee, was a delegate to the National Council for People with Disabilities and received the Council’s Community Spirit Award. She also was a support group facilitator for MDA and sometimes was just a plain volunteer helping the group out any way she could. With her cancer diagnosis, she raised funds and participated in the Komen’s Race for the Cure and had served on the board of the Indiana Association for People in Supported Employment as well as Easter Seals.

Won’t you please help us keep Sharon’s legacy alive?

Sharon’s husband Gary has created a scholarship fund at the IU School of Social Work in Sharon’s name that will keep her keen sense of helping others burning brightly in students for years to come.

Specifically, the Sharon Kay Arvin Byrkett Social Work Scholarship has been established at the Indiana University School of Social Work to assist students with disabilities, a group Sharon devoted her energies to help.

Once we reach our fundraising goal of $10,000, the scholarship will become endowed and exist in perpetuity.  Income earned from the endowment will be used to award scholarship funds to undergraduate or graduate students with disabilities.

Please join us in creating a lasting legacy for someone who gave so much of herself to helping others.

For more information, please contact Sandy Noe, Development Director at (317) 278-1620 or smnoe@iupui.edu.  If you would like to make a gift by check, please make the check payable to IUF and mail to 902 W. New York Street, Room ES 4114B, Indianapolis, Indiana  46202.  Please write Sharon Byrkett Scholarship in the memo section of the check.