Special to the Bulverde News

When art teacher Claudette Cozzi left Smithson Valley High School for Canyon Lake High School, she didn’t know what was going to become of the Capt. Frank Callahan Memorial Scholarship

Since CLHS opened with only freshmen and sophomores last fall, Cozzi was afraid it would be difficult to drum up support for a scholarship that wouldn’t be awarded until the spring of 2010, the year the school’s first senior class is to graduate.

It turned out Cozzi didn’t have anything to worry about. The Callahan Scholarship will live on at Canyon Lake High School.

Capt. Frank Callahan was a member of the New York Fire Department’s Ladder 35 who lost his life in the line of duty during the Sept. 11 attacks.

Cozzi, a native New Yorker, was college roommates with Callahan’s wife, Angie. After college, Angie and Claudette Cozzi lived near each other in a small town 90 miles northwest of New York City until the Cozzis moved to Texas 11 years ago.

“All our children are the same age,” Cozzi said. “We raised our families together.”

Cozzi, a talented artist, expressed her feelings for Frank and Angie Callahan and their family after Sept. 11 with a touching and inspirational painting depicting the souls of the brave men and women who lost their lives rising into the sky with the Twin Towers in the background.

Cozzi presented that painting to Angie and, with her blessing, sold large and small prints of the artwork to raise money for scholarships in Frank’s name to be given to students that are art majors or volunteer fire fighters.

“Every penny I’ve ever made off the painting has gone directly to the scholarship fund or a charity,” Cozzi said. “That’s the way it will always be.”

But when Cozzi switched schools, that fundraising had to start all over again. And, as seed money, Angie Callahan gave Cozzi a check for $2,500 to get the effort restarted at CLHS.

“I honestly didn’t know what was going to happen with the scholarship when I moved to Canyon Lake High,” Cozzi said. “I couldn’t imagine starting from scratch with the fundraising again, but Angie came through for us in a big way. It didn’t surprise me a bit because she’s always doing things like that out of the kindness of her heart.”