Jennifer Brewer's memory honoured in Turnaround Award

On the fridge in the staff room at Kingswood Entertainment Centre hangs the name tag of Jennifer Brewer.

Her co-workers put it there to remember their 24-year-old colleague who was killed in a June 10 motor vehicle accident.

We take it right now and look at is as a blessing that we actually had her in our lives.- Alex Trask, Kingswood employee

"We take it right now and look at is as a blessing that we actually had her in our lives for the last two years," said Alex Trask, who was Brewer's manager at Kingswood.

"She was always outgoing, and friendly and easy to talk to," said Gary DiPaolo.

Brewer's body was found in the St. John River two days after an early morning car crash on St. Anne's Point Drive.

Kingswood and her co-workers are now making sure that won't be her legacy, funding a $1,000 Turnaround Achievement Award scholarship in her memory.

Trask believes Brewer would be proud the scholarship was named in memory of her, noting that she was always an advocate of education.

"I'm pretty sure Brewer looking down at us is ecstatic, because she did believe in education," said Trask. "So I think the fact that we're naming something that is going to help kids further their education would make her really happy."

The Turnaround Achievement Awards are given out annually in April to students that made a change in their lives. That change may be behavioural, or academic.

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DiPaolo is the chairman of the awards and was contacted by Kingswood staff shortly after news broke that Brewer died.

"The staff here at Kingswood had talked about [the scholarship] and they felt it was just the natural thing to do to keep her memory because she was such a vibrant person here at Kingswood, and such a part of the staff," said DiPaolo

Both DiPaolo and Trask said they hope that Brewer's family will be able to present the scholarship at all upcoming award ceremonies, with the next presentation in April.

There will be no specific criteria regarding what kind of student will get the award, only that they must be attending a post-secondary institution.

Trask said that the centre has gone through a tough week.

When the news broke that Brewer was missing the staff just wanted to find her, thinking she may have just went to a friend's house.

When they found out she was dead they were devastated and the centre closed early. Now, a week after her initial disappearance, Trask hopes that something good can come from the tragedy.

"I'm hoping [the scholarship] will put out a message about the hazards of drinking and driving."