Peymaan "Sam" Banankhah remembers Ryan Conley as a great chess player and friend who was fun to horse around with at school, at chess club, and in the Lisbon Volunteer Fire Department.

This year, Banankhah, 17, of Glenelg, became the second person to receive a $1,000 scholarship in Ryan Conley's name from Ryan's parents Shawn, 45, and Kathy Conley, 44.

"I'm really honored that I got it. I truly am. It's really great having some reminder of Ryan with me," Banankhah said June 30.

Ryan Conley was killed Feb. 22, 2007, on his family's Mount Airy farm after the 16-year-old sledded down a 1,000-foot hill in icy conditions, fell into a ravine and struck a tree.

Shortly after the accident, the Conleys established the Ryan Conley Memorial Fund Scholarship in his name. The $1,000 scholarship is awarded annually to a high school senior at Glenelg High School who has a history of serving the community through volunteer or other work, Shawn Conley said.

The scholarship is not intended to reward students who only excel in academics although a 2.5 baseline grade point average is required. Instead it is meant to reward students who have volunteered in the community, Shawn Conley said.

"We wanted to do something that recognized the people who were active in the community, that was about the only way we could categorize it," he said.

Banankhah, who plans to study pre-medicine at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the fall, was awarded the scholarship because of his volunteer work as an emergency medical technician at the Lisbon Volunteer Fire Department, his volunteer work at The University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore and because of his friendship with Ryan, the Conleys said.

Banankhah is the second Glenelg High School senior to receive the scholarship. The first went to Steven Greenberg, a 2007 graduate of Glenelg High School.

Keeping Ryan's name alive

The Conleys hope that the scholarship will enable Ryan's name to be remembered and to honor those like him in the community who are interested in service to others.

"He wasn't the type of person who would drive by, or see some kind of person who needed help, and keep on going," Shawn Conley said.

The Conleys remember their son as always active around the Lisbon Volunteer Fire Department where Shawn Conley is a volunteer firefighter.

"Ryan wasn't officially a member here, but he was always here helping out with breakfasts. He was a fixture, he was always helping me out with the pancakes," Shawn Conley said at the fire department June 30.

Ryan also was a strong chess player and a red belt in the Japanese martial art of Aikido, two belts away from black belt, and wanted to go on to become a pilot, his parents said. He also continually helped out around the family's 30-acre farm and would also help neighbors in activities like clearing their driveways of fallen trees, Shawn Conley said.

More than a year since the fatal accident, Ryan's parents and his twin sister, Corinne, continue to grieve the loss of their son and brother.

"It's been really hard, and it will be," Kathy Conley said. "I don't know that that pain and loss ever goes away or gets better. You just learn to live with it."

The loss has been especially hard on Corinne Conley, whom family members said was very close with her brother.

"Since before I was born I've been with Ryan. It's very difficult to be without him," she said.

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