12 scholarships given in memory of 2 Las Vegas police officers

Twelve children of Las Vegas police officers were awarded the Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo Memorial Scholarship on Thursday.

The scholarships, named after the two officers killed in an ambush while on their lunch break at an east valley Cicis Pizza on June 8, 2014, were presented by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation and provided the students with $5,000 each to put toward furthering their education.

This year’s scholarship recipients were Angelo Bevilacqua III, Viviana Cera, Nyah Chio, Troy Connell, Lexi Darcy, Xavier Grabowski, Jaylynn McCarthy, Charles Mennig, DeShone Myles Jr., Ceff Orfrecio, Jonathon Perez and Manuel Walt.

Foundation board member Ron Coury said he and his business partner Don Tamburro approached the police department seven years ago with an idea to honor Beck and Soldo’s legacy.

“Picture us one day, thinking, ‘What can we do for cops?’ ” Coury said. “Cops are used to taking care of themselves and everyone else, so we came up with the idea to do a scholarship for their kids and let them know through gifts to their children starting college how much the jobs they do mean to us.”

Coury said he and Tamburro initially contributed $50,000, which has grown to more than $300,000 in scholarships over the past seven years.

Chio, 18, said it meant a lot to receive a scholarship from Metro after growing up with an officer for a dad.

“My dad has been such a big influence in my life, and he’s taught me a lot through his job,” Chio said. “Having the scholarship come from Metro means a lot, because it’s really like a big family.”

Myles, 18, said that growing up with a dad in the department helped to shape him into a selfless, caring person. His dad was an NFL linebacker before becoming an officer, but Myles said he’s always been more impressed with his dad’s role at Metro.

“Sure, he was in the NFL, but this has impacted me a lot more,” Myles said. “It taught me a lot of lessons growing up, like that it’s not always about what you get in return, but just expanding out to the community and doing what you can for other people, not necessarily what they can do for you.”

Undersheriff Chris Darcy attended the ceremony, where his 18-year-old daughter, Lexi, was one of the scholarship recipients. The undersheriff said he’s honored to be a part of a department that puts a focus on educating future leaders, and to watch his daughter receive one of the scholarships.

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.