The Don Holliday Memorial Foundation celebrated its 40th year of existence on Wednesday, and in doing so, named Cave Spring’s Emily Tull the recipient of the Don Holliday Memorial Scholarship.
Tull is a Cave Spring senior who plans on attending Virginia Tech in the fall of 2026, and is involved heavily in the community as well as being a multisport athlete for Cave Spring golf and volleyball.
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Tull boasts a 4.04 GPA along with being a member of the National English Honor Society, Beta club and Key club. Outside of school, she’s involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes along with the Buddies club. The scholarship, which is $30,000 and comes as a surprise to the athlete, certainly caught her off guard.
“It feels really amazing and having some of my family members here it really feels emotional for me,” said Tull. “I’m such an emotional person and it’s just it feels so amazing and I feel really honored and it makes me feel special. Everything’s finally paid off and of course that doesn’t mean I stop working, but it just feels nice that all my hard work has finally paid off.”
In honor of the scholarships’ 40th year, there was a second scholarship handed out for $10,000 to Carma Ferguson of Glenvar High School. She plans on attending Radford and Carilion Nursing School. Ferguson is a girls basketball and softball player along with swimmer for Glenvar and is heavily involved elsewhere in the community, including the Roanoke Symphony Youth Orchestra as well as volunteering at Straight Street.
The Don Holliday Memorial Foundation was established in 1986 to honor the memory of Don Holliday, a district sales manager for Piedmont Airlines. Since its first golf tournament in 1987, the foundation has awarded more than $550,000 in scholarships. The annual $30,000 scholarship is administered by the Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame and is awarded to a Southwest Virginia high school senior with a demonstrated interest in golf.