First Christy Harris Memorial Nursing Scholarship Awarded

PHOTO:Christy Harris Memorial Nursing Scholarship Award recipient Jessica Hott (front row, center) is pictured with members of Christy's family (front, from left) Dan Smith with daughter Madison (Christy's granddaughter), Hott, and Jenny Smith. Back row: WMHS Foundation Director Karen Johnson, David Smith and Kathy Henry.

The Western Maryland Health System Foundation, together with the family of Christy Harris, is pleased to announce the awarding of the inaugural Christy Harris Memorial Nursing Scholarship to Jessica Hott.

Jessica will be awarded $500 per semester, for a maximum of four semesters, to complete her nursing education at Allegany College of Maryland. A 1998 graduate of Christian Liberty Academy, she currently holds a 3.2 grade point average as a full-time student, while working full time as a phlebotomist at the Western Maryland Health System. She was one of many qualified applicants for this scholarship that is designed to assist a non-traditional nursing student. Jessica's essay seemed to most closely embody Christy's spirit and her passion for nursing.

Christy Harris is the mother of Daniel, David and Jenny Smith, and the grandmother of Madison Christine Smith. Her twin sister, Kathy Henry, sister Patricia Sabia, and husband Roger Harris survive her. She is the daughter of the late George and Lorraine Amato of Ridgeley, West Virginia, and the sister of the late Tony Amato, Jacksonville, N.C. Christy passed away on January 28, 2003, at the age of 50 after a short, courageous battle with ovarian cancer.

Christy Smith Harris was a longtime employee at Memorial Hospital. She worked as a relief medical transcriptionist in Medical Records from 1978 until 1989. She enrolled in the nursing program at Allegany College in 1991. She began her career as a nurse at Memorial in 1994 on the 4 South Med/Surg Unit. She worked in Home Care for a short while before going back to Memorial and eventually working as a float nurse throughout both hospital campuses.

Christy chose nursing as her second career later in life. Though she only worked for eight years as a nurse, she touched countless lives in that time. It is the intent of her family through this scholarship to share her legacy with a new generation of caregivers who share the same passion and devotion to nursing that she did.