The Odierno Law Firm, located in Melville, N.Y., is proud to announce the Brianna Lieneck Memorial Scholarship, in honor of Brianna Lieneck. This scholarship will be awarded annually to a female student-athlete currently enrolled in her senior year of high school, in Nassau or Suffolk County, and planning to attend college. The recipient will be granted a one-time tuition award of $15,000. This will be paid directly to the institution of enrollment.

The scholarship is in honor of Brianna Lieneck, who lost her life in a tragic boating accident, in 2005, at just 11 years old. This accident inspired Brianna’s Law, a comprehensive boater-education law requiring all power boaters in New York State to complete an eight-hour boating safety course.

Brianna was an enthusiastic and promising young athlete, so this is a fitting tribute to her lasting legacy. She participated in several sports, with a penchant for softball. In addition, she was known to personify the core values of hard work, teamwork, and dedication. The well-rounded athlete was also a diligent student who exemplified discipline on the field and in the classroom.

Gina Lieneck has been battling for years to get new boating safety laws passed in honor of her daughter, Brianna, who was killed in a tragic boating accident in 2005. The 11-year-old died after a boat crashed into the family craft on the Great South Bay. Subsequently, after her daughter’s death, Lieneck made it her life’s mission to get Brianna’s Law passed, in 2019. This new legislation began to require all individuals operating these powerful boats to take a boating safety course approved by the commissioner of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

“This is the first year of the scholarship. Thanks to the Odierno Law Firm, we had a softball tournament team, and Scott Odierno, his daughter, was on our team. They’re a very good family. They’re very good to everybody. They donate to so many different things. They were always going back and forth about doing scholarships and we finally got this going. I sat with them and they said they wanted to do $15,000, a year, annually,” Lieneck explained.

It’s a one-time scholarship for a female athlete who is college-bound, and the contest requires an essay, of which the family has received quite a few so far.

“One of the letters must have done a little research. They portrayed themself as the type of person that Brianna was. Sometimes, it’s tough to read. It’s hard, but it’s a good thing,” Lieneck said.

Lieneck added that she and her family are looking for authenticity—not cookie-cutter answers—in these heartfelt essays. “What they’re all about. The grades are important and stuff, but my daughter, Brianna, was fabulous with all the sports. She was caring, hardworking, more things like that. In any kinds of sports, whether it be bowling—that’s all sports. She was very athletic. She was a great softball player. She really did excel in that. That was her passion. She would play 24 hours a day. She would wake up early on weekends and be throwing balls against the wall. She was always practicing. She said one day, ‘You know what, I want to miss practice,’ and she would never miss practice, and we said, ‘We’ll let you do this.’ It was a half-hour later that she said, ‘I want to go to practice’. She was dedicated. She was always trying to pick up the team.”

While the scholarship is a rewarding venture, it is also bittersweet for the still grieving mother. “One of my Facebook memories today was a little booklet and in it they wrote how she was very good at softball, and when Amanda would do something wrong, Brianna would try and help. She was always the team spirit, trying to pick everybody up when they were down. Maybe if somebody shows that they exemplify that,” said Lieneck, supplying a clue to the type of sincerity the scholarship winner will have to exude.

Interested, qualified candidates are invited to apply for the memorial scholarship by submitting a 500-word essay to scholarship@o2law.com. The essay must illustrate how the candidate personifies Brianna’s qualities and detail a hardship or disadvantage the candidate has faced and how they have persevered through the adversity.

Applications will be accepted from Jan. 15 through June 15, each calendar year. The recipient will be selected by the Lieneck Family and announced during the last week of June. To learn more about the Brianna Lieneck Memorial Scholarship, visit o2law.com/scholarship or email scholarship@o2law.com, and take the next step toward your future goals!