Members of the Ossining community came out to the Anne M. Dorner Middle School and Teatown Lake Reservation Saturday to honor and celebrate the life of Riley Saper with an all day fundraiser to support the Riley Saper Foundation.  

The Riley Saper Foundation is a scholarship program for high achieving seniors at Ossining High School who need financial assistance with college. The foundation is dedicated and named after Riley Saper, a 7^th grader from Anne M. Dorner Middle School who lost his battle with Leukemia in June of 2010, a week after finishing his 7^th grade work with honors.

“He was a future president,” said Wendy Masserman, director of the For Kids Only Child Care Facility in Briarcliff Manor that Riley went to as a young child. “He was as wonderful kid, sweet, kind and brilliant. It was a big loss.”

He made such an impact on Masserman and the children of For Kids Only that Masserman decided to donate a dollar of every copy of her book, Danny, the Pretend Pirate, sold to the Riley Saper Foundation. In addition to her personal donation, the kids at the center also run fundraisers to help support the foundation.

“The kids get into it [fundraising] I still have a bunch of kids who remember Riley but many of them don’t know him,”  Masserman continued.  “We talk him up so he is never gone.”

The bittersweet day was filled with a lot of events and laughter. The day featured an assortment of events at both Anne M. Dorner and Teatown such as: nature hikes, tree plantings, a sack race, a worst singer competition and games such as softball, baseball and the teacher’s vs. student’s kickball game that the students won.

“It’s hard to describe how incredible this day has been as well as how hard it’s been being in the public eye and doing so much when I’m trying to manage my grief over the last year,” said Laura Elmore, Riley’s mom.  “But the entire community wanted to come out and do something…it’s been a year and a week and it was a lot to pull together in such as short time. Last week was the one year anniversary of his death [June 11] and having something positive helped pull us through it….it’s been a great day.”

What really helped was the 20 member student committee who helped organize and run the event. Members of the committee were friends of Riley who attended meetings throughout the year to help plan the day’s events.

“At the first meeting they [the students] were silent. Then the ideas just started coming out,” said Jeff Saper, Riley’s dad. “It helped them heal.”

The highlight of the day came in the evening with a concert of local bands such as the Trinity Youth Ensemble, Parris and Taylor Beato, Mike and Miriam Risko and a ceremony where this year’s scholarship winner was announced.

This year’s recipient, Jennifer Molde received a $1,000 scholarship that will help finance her business and economics studies at SUNY Cortland.

“I’m really happy,” said Jennifer Molde. “It will help me a lot in college. It’s less money I will have to take out in loans. So I’m really happy.”

The Riley Saper Foundation’s goal is to continue raising money and giving out scholarships. In 2015 they will give out the largest gift because that would have been the year Riley would have graduated high school.

In addition to the scholarship, the Ossining Public Library also bestowed an award in Riley’s honor. The Ossining Public Library’s Riley Elmore Saper Voracious Reader of the Year Award was created after Riley’s passion for reading. The award went to Samantha Morrison who went to kindergarten with Riley.

When asked if they had anything else to add Riley’s parent’s said, “Allow us to thank the Ossining Community. We wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without the army of volunteer’s we got. He [Riley] was loved by so many.”