By Jeremy Moorhouse
The Mount Airy News
jmoorhouse@mtairynews.com

DOBSON -- Two years after the tragic death of swimmer Chortney Wilmoth, the Dobson Dolphins will hold the inaugural Chortney Wilmoth Memorial Scholarship Invitational Swim Meet in her honor.

The event, which will be held Saturday, Aug. 9, will serve as a fundraiser for a swimming scholarship and also will promote awareness of safety issues concerning young adults.

Wilmoth was a backseat passenger when a car driven by a teenager took a curve too fast on April 17, 2006. She was killed after being thrown from the car. Wilmoth was not wearing seatbelt.

Wilmoth was 15 years old and had swam for the Dolphins since age 7.

The driver wore a seatbelt but the other two men in the car that survived did not have a seatbelt.

"Each year since her passing we try to make a fundraising kind of thing to make a scholarship for her," Dobson coach Chris Stanley said. "This past year we had two recipients, Allie Coe and Morgan Robertson, who also got a scholarship to NC State.

"Chortney would have made the scholarship this year if she had graduated. All of us were pretty close to her. I've been here 14 years. I got to coach her one year before she died. We all loved her and try to keep her in our hearts.

"This year we decided to try and do an invitational and invite everybody in the community. All our swim teams in the Blue Ridge community can come and compete against each other, not as team thing, but a personal, individual kind of thing."

The National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration is sending out brochures, flyers and informative materials for the upcoming event and the Chrysler Corporation is sending 200 parent/teen driver contracts.

Dobson's swim team has also been in contact with the Surry County Sheriff's Department. Statistics related to teenagers in car accidents, seatbelt usage and fatalities in North Carolina also will be available at the event.

"We hope we raise a lot of money. The family will donate some back to the pool. It's going to work out for everybody in the good I hope," Stanley said. "We hope to get a lot of sponsors. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback. We'll be able to offer a nice size scholarship for the next person.

"Maybe it will be a two-person scholarship this year."

Wilmoth swam her freshman and sophomore year at Surry Central and was a state qualifier her sophomore year and competed at NC State University in the 2A championships.

Wilmoth swam for the Dolphins for 10 years and was an all-conference swimmer for Surry Central's Mountain Valley 2A Conference championship team.

"Chortney had been a major part in the Dobson-Surry Central community since she was a little girl," Central head swimming coach Amber Flippin said. "I can remember lifeguarding there, her playing and swimming when she was 5-6 years old.

"It's a great thing for the community. She was grounded in that community. It's a great memorial to her."

Added Stanley: "She was a swimmer, played tennis, cheered, did a little of everything at Surry Central. Her first love was swimming. That was the youngest thing she could get into."

In 2007, fundraising efforts by the Dolphins and other organizations totaled $2,500 in scholarship money.