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  This memorial website was created in the memory of our loved one, Austin Baker who was born in North Carolina on July 22, 1989 and passed away on August 24, 2005 at the age of 16. We will remember him forever.  
  
  
  
  

Blessed Assurance!

    
                                  

          The Band - Austin loved the drums and the guitar (both electric & acoustic).   He would spend hours upon hours practicing.   We bought him his first acoustic guitar for his 16th birthday.  I loved to hear him play it.   It had such a pretty sound.  He would learn something new and come running downstairs saying "mama, listen to this".    We will slowly add some of Austin's favorite artist to the music library.  The current background music was one of Austin's many favorites.     

Austin rode dirt bikes, 4-wheelers, wakeboarded, skateboarded, in-line skated - he was quite the dare devil.   He wasn't afraid of anything except disappointing people.  

Austin wanted to move to California and play music.   He dreamed of going to college and becoming a phychologist.   He would have been great at both.    

Austin was fascinated with airplanes.   A friend of the family flew him to Savannah GA to see Uncle David.   Austin was so excited that day.      He wanted to get his pilot license.   He also flew model airplanes with his paw paw Allen.     On a family vacation in 2002, we had a chance to fly in an open cockpit plane!  Austin's in the back with me just grinning from ear to ear. 
                

Austin James Baker Memorial Foundation

Shortly after Austin's death we formed the Austin James Baker Memorial Foundation.   Austin was taken from us too early and he didn't have a chance to finish living out his hopes and dreams.  My God leading us, we pray the foundation will honor Austin's memory and give others a chance to fulfill their dreams through our work.   Visit www.ajbfoundation.org for all the latest news on what we are up to!


Our Purpose…
Our purpose is to extend opportunities that will assist in education through academic scholarships. In addition, we will strive to increase the awareness to the importance of seat belt use and highway safety in our youth.

Our Activities … 

Scholarships Program
Each year we will award an academic scholarship to a former American
Renaissance Middle School student. This is a $2,000 per year scholarship and is available to the recipient for up to 4 years. ($8,000 in total) .  For more information on the scholarship program, visit www.ajbfoundation.org.

Joshua Taylor (J.T.) Wiggins was awarded the scholarship in 2006 and is currently attending the Art Institute of Atlanta. 

Christian Waugh was awarded the scholarship in 2007 and is currently attending Eastern Carolina University.

Seat Belt Awareness Program
We will continue our efforts to increase the awareness to the importance of seat belt use and highway safety. We are participating in the driver’s education classes in Iredell County.  Our intent is to partner with the educators to relate a very personal and tragic experience of not wearing a seat belt to the students. We will hand out items such as car decals and visor clips to the students’ as reminders to wear their seat belts. We appreciate our school systems’ support of this initiative. 
 

    
We held our 2nd Annual AJB Memorial Golf Tournament on May 18 & 19 , 2007.   We had 175 players and 50+ volunteers.   Preliminary calculations indicate we cleared $9,000+ after expenses to help fund our purpose.   We are so very blessed to have so much support from family, friends and complete strangers.  If you want to view pictures from this years golf tournament go to www.angiebass.shutterfly.com  and look for the Golf 2007 album.