The League would like to congratulate Owen Fitzpatrick and Adrian Spauling-Nottage on being this year’s winners of the Mark E. Lewis Youth Scholarship. Owen and Adrian have each received $5,000 tuition donations from the league for their efforts in raising awareness of and advocating for greater understanding of the LGBTQIA+ community in their respective schools. This Fall, Owen will be attending Bates College and Adrian will be attending Suffolk University. Congratulations Owen and Adrian and good luck this Fall!

Owen Fitzpatrick

Owen lead the track team and has worked to ensure all LGBTQIA+ kids are able to fearlessly be their authentic selves by creating a safe and welcoming environment – this gives them confidence. He launched a 5K training program called ‘Running Up’ during the pandemic to try and give people something to look forward to and give hope.

When his town lost two LGBTQIA+ students he used his artistic ability to create a mural called ‘Perpetual Kindness’ as a way to reinforce Kindness and Inclusion to the entire community. His second mural ‘We’ve got your back’ was dedicated to one of the students who died and was intended to bring light to issues of gender, hatred and discrimination.

Adrian Spaulding-Nottage

Adrian has been part of the Varsity Swimming and Diving team for 3 years and Varsity Cheerleading for 1 year.

As the first trans athlete on the Swim team, he faced significant challenges in terms of people’s awareness and understanding. He persevered through this and has participated in several panels to continue to shine a light on where the school and community needs to continue to improve to make student athletes like himself feel welcome and safe and respected. Adrian will be attending Suffolk University this Fall.

Please join us in congratulating both Owen and Adrian as this year’s Marc E Lewis scholarship winners. The entire league, and our sponsors are so proud of you both and we are excited  to welcome you into our extended FLAG Flag Football family.