Vernon student earns $10K scholarship

VERNON — Trent Schamble of Vernon was awarded a $10,000 scholarship through the state Kid's Chance Scholarship Program at a gala event at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick.

Schamble was one of six students to win the scholarship.

Trent's father, Ray, suffered a fall while working on June 29, 2013, resulting in a broken back, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

Kids’ Chance New Jersey, part of a national Kids’ Chance organization founded in 1988, presented $10,000 scholarships to each of six students whose parents were either killed or seriously injured in New Jersey workplace accidents. Five of the students, some with their injured parents, joined the gala, which was attended by approximately 350 people.

Kids’ Chance New Jersey held its first fundraiser in 2013, granting its first $10,000 scholarship to a West Morris/Mendham High School student whose father suffered a spinal cord injury.

According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4,628 workers were killed on the job in the United States in 2012, the latest year for which data is available, which amounts to an average of 12 deaths every day in the American workplace. Last year, New Jersey reported 37 fatal workplace injuries.