Bella Fortino is our 2026 Kindness Matters Scholarship Award winner.  She is a St. Mary’s student who is a part of their cross-country and track team.  Addition to being an accomplished runner, who will be attending SWOCC in Coos Bay for two years, and then the University of Portland to finish her undergraduate degree, she is the epitome of "Kindness".  Having lost her father to suicide when she was just one years old, she has lived her life trying to help others. In addition to helping her ninety-two-year-old grandma with dementia, her twenty-six-year-old brother who has autism, her XC and T&F teammates as a captain, and the homeless at Set Free Ministry, she plans to study psychology to become a therapist, so that she might be able to help others who suffer from trauma.

 In Honor or Grace Holt, Bella will receive a four-year $1000 college scholarship.  This award goes to a track or cross-country athlete who is an amazing person, teammate, and shows kindness.