Liam Hale Adventure Scholarship goes to Harwood sophomore Eamon Langlais
May 18, 2023 | By Waterbury Roundabout 
Harwood sophomore Eamon Langlais is this year's recipient of the Liam Kenneth Hale Adventure Scholarship at Sugarbush. Courtesy photo
Honoring the memory of a very active former Harwood Union High School student who loved the outdoors, a special scholarship with Sugarbush has been awarded to current Harwood sophomore, Eamon Langlais.
Harwood Unified Union School District named the Waterbury Center 10th grader as this year’s recipient of the Liam Kenneth Hale Adventure Scholarship.
Hale and four friends lost their lives in an October 2016 car crash with a wrong-way driver on Interstate 89. Since then, Hale’s family worked to establish a unique annual award to go to a Harwood sophomore in his memory.
From a very young age, Liam enjoyed skiing, so much so that his family describes how at the beach on Cape Cod, “instead of building sand castles, Liam built topographical sculptures of ski slopes in the sand.”
As he grew, he took up mountain biking, participating in camps and competitions. During the last year of his life, golf became another passion.
The award description explains that “Liam’s exposure to outdoor sports at Sugarbush made him a confident, adventurous and outgoing young man. His work experience at the mountain taught him responsibility and was a source of pride.”
Establishing the scholarship with Sugarbush is intended to provide a Harwood student with “the opportunity to learn the skills, virtues, and passion Liam gained during the many joyous days he spent at Sugarbush,” according to the application.
The award began in 2019 and each year, students completing 10th grade are eligible to apply.
The recipient receives a Sugarbush Four Season Pass which provides four seasons of adventure with unlimited skiing/riding, golf, mountain biking, scenic lift rides, and yearlong Sugarbush Health & Recreation Center access. Valued at more than $3,000, the pass includes additional benefits such as half-off day tickets at participating Mountain Collective Resorts; lesson, lodging, tuning and rental discounts; and golf discounts. An equipment allowance is determined for the scholarship recipient as well.
In announcing the award, the school district said: “This year the applicants shared what a healthy lifestyle means to them and how they would use the Sugarbush Four Season’s Pass. The applications were compelling. Eamon Langlais was honored and grateful to be awarded this scholarship.”
Like Liam, Eamon is a skier and mountain biker and is learning to play golf. He says he’s looking forward to spending more time with friends outdoors. “Most of my friends are more experienced in golf than I am and I’m looking forward to being able to learn and play with them, he said.
Those wishing to contribute to this scholarship in memory of Liam may send donations to: The Liam Kenneth Hale Adventure Scholarship at the Harwood Unified Union School District central office, 340 Mad River Park, Waitsfield, VT 05672.