ELBURN, Ill. -- Graduation day should be an exciting day, filled with laughter and memories shared with friends and family. For Bob Burkholder, Chief Information Officer for convenience store distributor Eby-Brown, and his wife Donna, this day was bittersweet.
The Burkholders two children, Andrew, 17, and Jarrett, 15, were killed in a car accident on March 3, 2003. This year, Jarrett would have walked across the stage with his classmates. Instead, his parents found themselves up on stage, presenting $1,000 scholarships to 20 of Jarrett's classmates and [image-nocss] friends.
The Andrew & Jarrett Burkholder Memorial Scholarship has been given every year since the boys' deaths to students graduating from Kaneland High School in Elburn, Ill. The plaques given to award recipients read: Dedicated to the pursuit of learning in memory of Jarrett; and the love of life, for Andrew. Over the years, the Burkholders have donated about $43,000 to Kaneland High graduates.
The school and community really helped us out and embraced us in our time of need, Burkholder said. It's good to give something back.
Burkholder has been a prominent member of the c-store industry for more than 30 years. He has served on the NACS Technology Committee, the NACS EDI Standards Committee, the Technology Standards Steering Committee and is currently a member of PCATS, the Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards.
A privately held company, Eby-Brown, with headquarters in Naperville, Ill., provides consumer goods and other products to retailers in the convenience channel of trade.
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