The sun beat down on Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Fla., as Craig Winters and his family stood in a long line to see Disney’s Philharmonic. But the show was the last thing on his mind. Just two days before leaving for vacation, he learned his sister’s breast cancer was terminal, and she did not have much time left.

As Winters waited, he thought about how he could honor his only sister, Carisa. That is when he and his family decided to establish a scholarship in her name at Oklahoma State University.

“I called my sister while we’re standing in line for this show and I said, ‘I don’t have any idea how it works, and I don’t know what it would look like, but there’s something I’d like to do. We’re going to ask dad and Martha (step-mother) and anyone else who’d like to participate, and it’s completely up to them, no pressure, but this is what we’d like to do,’” Craig says.

“Carisa thought that was just the coolest thing, so every conversation we had after that, she always wanted to know if I’d talked to OSU and figured out how this was going to work.”

Craig placed that initial call to his sister on July 4, 2008, and on Aug. 22, 2008, Carisa lost her two-year battle with cancer at 48.

“She was a redheaded fireball,” Craig says. “The thing she was most passionate about was her family and friends and she did whatever she could to let us know we were important to her. That’s why we wanted to do this service award, because she was always helping people and getting involved in the community.”  

Carisa grew up in Harrah, Okla., and graduated from OSU with a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 1982. Though she left Oklahoma to pursue her career as a programmer, Craig said she never forgot the education and life experience she gained at Oklahoma State.

“She was deeply passionate about Oklahoma State. In fact, nearly every conversation that we had included OSU,” Craig says. “Even as she was wrapping up her life, she was still thinking about OSU and how important it was to her.

“At her life celebration party two weeks before her death, she was recruiting a close friend’s son by planning a weekend visit to Stillwater. She even offered up our season football tickets for any game they wanted.”

Carisa wrote her own obituary, and in it, she calls OSU “the best darn school in the state, nation and world.”

To pay tribute to Carisa’s love of OSU and her dedication to service, Craig and his family donated $50,000 to create the Carisa Winters Endowed Service Award within OSU’s Service-Learning Volunteer Center.

The award will provide financial assistance to juniors or seniors who have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and have demonstrated a record of service documented through the volunteer center. It will also enable these students to pursue new service ideas and transform those ideas into reality.

About 8,500 students serve the Stillwater community through OSU’s volunteer center, and as the center grows and offers more service opportunities to students, that number is expected to grow.

“After 25 years, this is the first endowed scholarship through our office, and we’re very proud to be part of it,” says Joyce Montgomery, coordinator of OSU’s Service-Learning Volunteer Center. “We certainly want to honor Carisa Winters, who promoted service and participated fully in strengthening the community.”

Craig; his wife, Shelley; his children, Bailey and Brenden; his father, Bob; and his step-mother, Martha, all donated to the endowment.

“It was important to involve our family in this because family was important to her,” Craig says. “I wanted to make sure that everyone had an opportunity to honor her legacy of loving the university and her legacy of service.”

Craig and Shelley say the one thing Carisa took pride in was being the world’s greatest aunt. She demonstrated that by making her nieces and nephews an important part of her life – never missing a dance recital, always being there when needed and, most of all, passing on her love for OSU to next generation.

“Carisa was such an important person to our kids,” Shelley says. “Our kids love OSU also and being a part of this process has been a good way to honor Carisa, be involved with OSU, and teach them the value of community service and empowering others.”

For the Winters, this scholarship award does more than just honor Carisa, it provides an opportunity to continue her service to others even beyond her death.

“I hope that this will give students the financial advantage to further their education and also participate in service to the extent that their passion drives them. But even more, I hope it leads them to do something similar if they ever get the wherewithal so they can have a greater impact in someone else’s life,” Craig says.

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