2025 Otenasek ScholarshipAwards

For their dedicated service in support of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, two staff members and two volunteers at Gallagher Services — Dennis Biyogo, Journie McGhaw, Peter Ongwesa, and Ashley N. Thrash — have won the 2025 Anne Lindsey Otenasek Scholarship Awards. The scholarship is named for Anne Lindsey Otenasek, a longtime youth volunteer at Gallagher Services who lost her life aboard Pan American Flight 103, which was bombed in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Generously created by the Otenasek family to honor Lindsey, the scholarship has now been awarded to 140 recipients since its inception 35 years ago. The Otenaseks dedicate the awards to those associated with Gallagher because of Lindsey’s dedication to the organization’s invaluable work. Inspired by her volunteer service at Gallagher, Lindsey was preparing in college for a career working with deaf children.

All of this year’s winners are pursuing college degrees in health care and will use the $5,000 scholarships to help pay for the cost of their studies.

Ashley Thrash, a Gallagher volunteer and graduate student in nursing at Johns Hopkins University, said she’s drawn to health care because she loves to help people on their path to recovery. “I love to be a part of their comeback stories,” she said with a smile at the awards ceremony held on the campus of Gallagher in Baltimore County.

Journie McGhaw, a Gallagher volunteer who will be starting college in the fall at La Salle University after graduating from Milford Mill Academy, called Lindsey Otenasek an inspiration. “She served others by putting her heart fully into something meaningful,” McGhaw said.

Dennis Biyogo and Peter Ongwesa are both direct service providers at Gallagher, and both are pursuing degrees at Towson University.

Ongwesa’s work with Gallagher’s clients and staff has motivated him to learn even more. “This is the best way to extend what I do and uplift many others,” he said.

Biyogo could not attend the ceremony. He had to be away to care for an ailing loved one.

Richard Otenasek, Lindsey’s brother, addressed the audience, opening with a candid admission. “Truth be told, I wish we weren’t here,” he said, referring to the tragedy that led to the creation of the scholarship. But, he immediately added: “What you’re planning to do with your lives is an inspiration. You pay us back by paying it forward.”

This year’s ceremony proved particularly poignant, given that it was the first since
Lindsey and Richard’s mother, Margaret “Peggy” Bagli Otenasek, passed away in
December 2024.

To read more about the Anne Lindsey Otenasek Scholarships, click here. For more about Gallagher Services, which provides residential and meaningful day supports to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, click here.