Scholarship Started to Honor Fallen Southeast Grads

BRADENTON – Zachary (Zack) Morris and Albert Ales had only been in Peru a few hours when the scooter they were riding was struck by a city bus in Cusco on May 24. The best friends died from their injuries a few hours later. They had planned on hiking Machu Picchu and visiting the Rainbow Mountains while in Peru. The Morris and Ales families have created a lasting endowment that will award scholarships to two Southeast HS Inter-Baccalaureate (IB) students yearly.

The Community Foundation of Sarasota has agreed to steward these funds. Zack and Albert were graduates of this Manatee County High School's IB program which encourages personal and academic achievement, challenging students to excel in their studies and in their personal development. At present, donations can be made here.

The two friends were driven to make positive changes in their community and the world through kindness, creativity, innovation and ingenuity. They led with the type of altruistic spirit rarely found in someone so young. Albert was drawn to engineering and wanted to design more fuel-efficient engines. He was to attend the University of Central Florida.

Zack wanted to serve his country through the Navy and had plans of becoming a doctor to serve third-world countries. He was to attend Yale on a Naval ROTC scholarship. With hopes of giving back on a global scale, both young men were part of the Southeast class that manufactured thousands of wooden toy cars and trucks that were to be delivered to children in war-torn countries via affiliates of the 101st Airborne.

When they couldn't afford a new robotic arm needed for the toy-making process, they built one themselves from parts they purchased online and programmed it using free open source code.

A joint celebration of life was held Saturday at the Woodland Community Church in Bradenton. The Ales and Morris families grieve the loss of these two loving, bright and motivated young men. But they are immensely grateful to have had them in their lives for 18 years and to have had the privilege to raise them and marvel at all they accomplished in such a short time.

"They will be forever young, but we will cherish every moment we had with them,“ said the families in a joint statement. "Although we ache for all that they will never experience, there is comfort in knowing that their memory will live on through all the lives they touched while they were here.“

?The families ask that anyone touched by Zack’s and Albert’s story consider making a donation to the scholarship fund established in the boys’ memory.