More than just scholarship money

Siblings Daniel and Karina Bertolino remember their dad as the “Jolly Giant.”

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Stephen “Tony” Bertolino, Sr., stood 6-foot-8 and was always happy and helping other people. Among other attributes, the siblings and others will always remember him for his kindness.

“He was stationed in Iraq for about nine months before he was killed,” Daniel recalled. “At the time that he died he was on a convoy, and he actually wasn’t assigned to go on that mission. One of the other guys in his military unit was supposed to go out and he (Tony) told him, ‘No, you’ve been working real hard lately, so why don’t you stay back and I’ll go.’"

The elder Bertolino was killed when the convoy was ambushed Nov. 29, 2003, in a valley in Haditha, Iraq. He was 40.

The fact that “he paid the ultimate sacrifice, I know means a lot to our dad and to us as well that he was able to serve our country in that way,” Daniel said.

For Bertolino and others who have made the ultimate sacrifice since 9/11, The American Legion Legacy Scholarship Fund is there to help their children achieve a college education. And, this past May, the Legion’s National Executive Committee expanded the eligibility criteria to include children of veterans serving since 9/11 who have a VA disability rating of 50 percent or higher.

Daniel, Karina and their two other siblings, Tony and Jason, all have used the Legacy Scholarship Fund. Daniel, who recently graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho, said that the scholarship fund has helped him focus more on studies.

“I study a lot, and I value my time studying so much and The American Legion scholarship has given me the ability to focus on my studies,” he said. “There have been a couple of semesters where I worked to try and get a little bit more money in savings, and those semesters were extremely tough because I had less time to focus on my school work. This scholarship has really allowed me to just hone in on the very important things and studying so I am able to get the opportunities that I’ve been given after I graduate.”

For Karina, the scholarship made all the difference in going to college.

“It’s really hard to be able to get so much money for college by yourself, and it’s really helpful to have a scholarship fund like this that’s able to help us out with our college and just being able to get an education," she said. "And that’s something that I don’t think I would’ve been able to do before, to go to college. It’s not really something I thought about when I was younger, just because I didn’t think I would have the money for it. And it’s just really nice and helpful to be able to get an education and go into something I really want to go into because of you guys help and a nice scholarship.”

Their other siblings also have received scholarship money from the Legacy Scholarship Fund. The oldest Bertolino sibling, Tony, recently graduated from Brigham Young University, Provo, and is now in San Diego doing a post-graduate internship. The youngest sibling, Jason, is attending college in Utah.

Karina doesn’t have to look far to understand how much her father valued education, even though he was not able to finish his college degree. She has kept the last letter he sent her – addressed to “Boo Boo,” his nickname for her – dated May 8, 2003, when she was 7 years old.

“It’s just talking about how much he misses me, and he says, ‘How’s school?’ ‘What kind of things are you doing?’ and then, 'I hope everything is going OK,'” she said. “He mentions school a couple times in here, so I knew it was something that was really important to him. And he’d always bring that up when we’re on the phone with him, send us letters and stuff so, it’s just a good reminder that my dad cared about what I was doing in school and he wants me to succeed.”

The late Bertolino also passed on other values to his children.

“I always remember him saying that if he were to die, he wanted to die for (his) country,” Karina recalled. “I always think that that’s a good example for me that no matter what I’m doing, I should be serving others in the country, helping whomever I can.”

Daniel, too, learned the lesson of helping others from his father and also the Legacy Scholarship.

“It’s given me more of a sense of gratitude and wanting to serve those around me,” he said. “I’ve reached out to my friends in some of the classes that I’ve taken and helped them out with some of their projects that they’re struggling with because they don’t have the amount of time that I do to put into studying, so it’s really enabled me to give back as well.

“So, I would just say thank you to The American Legion for helping me and then allowing me to help those around me as well.”