By Suzi Mitchell

Tallak Myhre is an old soul with the zest for life of a young man, according to Bobby Aldergieri, the freestyle program director and Myhre’s former coach at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. The 18-year-old Steamboat Springs High School graduate, who is currently studying at Leeds School of Business at University of Colorado Boulder, is leaving some big shoes to fill. 

Myhre is the first recipient of the Sancy Shaw Scholarship, an award which was created to honor Sancy’s legacy. In December 2018, the 38-year old was killed in a car accident, leaving behind her husband, Brett, four children and a grief-stricken community in North Routt, where she lived for 14 years and taught for two. 

With faith and Sancy’s passion to live life to the fullest behind him, Brett, his parents and Sancy’s family, decided to seek light in a very dark place. “She made a tremendous impact as a teacher, and I didn’t want that to stop,” Brett says. “I keep finding notes from students who had something incredible to say, and we want her legacy and the impression she made to continue. 

Tallak Myhre was one of 18 Steamboat Springs High School seniors to apply for the scholarship. His father had once worked for Brett, and the couple had influenced Myhre during youth faith meetings at the Steamboat Christian Center. “Sancy taught me to experience everything in the moment and pushed me to be present in life,” Myhre says. 

Of the 18 applicants, six were nominated for interviews conducted by a 12-person panel made up of family, community members and staff at the Yampa Valley Community Foundation. “Every one of those 18 students had something that was incredible, and I have no doubt they will all go on to do something good,” Brett says. “Tallak characterized so much of who Sancy was, and we decided he was the best candidate – she would be extremely proud of him.”

Recognized by peers for his wry smile and sense of humor, Myhre has proven himself as a leader and mentor in the Steamboat community. He was treasurer of the National Honor Society, raised and showed dairy goats with the Elk River Wranglers 4H Club and was an active member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. When not looking after others – he spent a summer caring for his grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer’s – he is the ultimate sportsman. An avid skier and hunter, he played lacrosse and tennis for the Steamboat Sailors, and, like Sancy, he loves to fish.  

Myhre started school with an associate of arts degree, which he received at Colorado Mountain College as senior in high school. “I want to go and see the world to find my place in it, knowing through Christ I can overcome anything,” he says. 

It’s that strength and positivity that Brett hopes will rub of on future recipients. As part of the scholarship, Myhre will serve as a mentor to the next recipient. “I wish I’d had someone to guide me through the college application process and give me some advice,” Myhre says. 

As a senior at his high school in Pennsylvania, Brett was the recipient of a memorial scholarship dedicated to a former student, whom he never knew. The experience of getting to know the family made a huge impact on his life. That impact, and the impression Sancy made on everyone she ever touched, is what Brett hopes will go with Myhre and those who follow in his footsteps.  

An art show benefiting the Sancy Shaw Scholarship will be held in the upper floor of R Diamond Gallery on Saturday, Dec. 7. It will be a mix of a silent auction and a live auction, and an amazing collaboration of many of our community's artists, with 100% of the proceeds going to the scholarship. A preview will take place the night before, at the December First Friday ArtWalk. Well known artists include Chula Beauregard, David Marshall, Gregory Block, Jennifer Baker and Sandy Graves.