Last Tuesday, Bucks dedicated the meditation pond behind the Faculty Center to the memory of Amanda Sancataldo, the fiery redhead, who ignited sparks on campus as she tirelessly fought to injustice and gave a voice to those who had none.

“To know Amanda was like standing in the middle of a meteor shower,” close friend, Shawn McFarlane-Goldman described her friendship with Sancataldo.

The pond was chosen to honor Sancataldo’s memory because she so loved the spot, According to Dr. Chris Bursk, who organized the event.

“She came here to fume and fuss about injustices in the world,” Bursk said. “It was also a place where she could find peace and tranquility.”

Sancataldo’s mother, Sandy Gwinn, was pleased with the choice.

“She loved this campus and she loved this pond,” Gwinn said. “She often came and sat here on one of the benches. She would soon be surrounded by 15-20 people. That’s the kind of person she was.”

“Amanda was one of the greatest human beings who ever lived,” Bursk said. “She was feisty, brilliant, generous, cantankerous, and authentic.”

Bursk and Gwinn highlighted some of the many causes Amanda embraced as a student at Bucks.

She spent a week with other protesters taking over Tyler Hall, trying to avert a teacher’s strike. The effort paid off.

She joined a group that slept in cages on campus to call attention to the plight of the mentally ill and slept in a cardboard box to speak out about the homeless.

As speaker after speaker came forward to honor Sancataldo’s memory, a portrait emerged of an amazing young woman – a woman of courage, determination, passion, warmth and caring.

McFarlane-Goldman typified the experience of knowing Amanda.

“I met her in class here at Bucks,” she said. “At first she did not seem very different from other students. But soon I was drawn to her by her power and magic. We became very close friends. She infected me with her passion for learning. I received many accolades at Bucks and I attribute it all to Amanda. She showed me it was possible.”

Her father, Dick Gwinn, spoke in a voice choked with emotion. As he struggled to share beloved memories of his daughter, his wife went to his side offering comfort and support.

He talked about his daughter’s passion for helping the lonely, troubled and downtrodden. He said she was always ready to lend an understanding ear.

She would often say, “Don’t that just suck.” Her mother added that she would always follow up that comment by saying, “Now we’ve got to do something about it.”

She always did.

“In a school with 10,000 people, you don’t get to know everyone,” Bucks President James Linkz said. “Amanda was one of those people you couldn’t avoid knowing.”

The dedication ceremony also provided an opportunity to announce that a scholarship, set up in her name, would help two current students.

Marie Cooper, disability services coordinator at Bucks, said the scholarship would provide technology support for disabled students.

One of the recipients is Rhonda Partain, a full-time student, wife and mother, who has been blind since birth. Partain is being provided with a four-track tape player, necessary for books on tape. A social work major, Partain embodies many of the ideals Sancataldo held dear.

The other recipient is Takisha Sly, a low-vision student who will receive a printer for her home computer so she does not have to struggle with a difficult commute to use the college facilities. Sly had told Cooper that she had to choose between a winter coat and a printer this year.

Now that is not going to happen.

Following the personal remarks, those in attendance placed yellow, rubber ducks in the pond as a tribute to the girl who loved the creatures. While she was attending Rider University, she became known as “The Duck Lady,” her mother said.

Her husband, Marcel, a computer science major at Bucks, placed the dedication plaque by the pond. Following the ceremony, he returned to the pond and attached a tiny snow angel to the plaque.

“Amanda loved the snow and loved to make snow angels,” her mother explained, as Marcel affixed the trinket.

He later shared memories of his wife of nine years.

“She was an amazing person,” he said. “She could and did relate to anyone from the youngest student on campus to the president with equal ease.”

He remembered a time when they were in Harrisburg where Amanda was receiving one of her many awards. Afterward, they had drinks with some of the VIPs at the ceremony.

She just kicked back like they were all old friends. She treated everyone the same, her husband said.

Amanda suffered a heart attack in May, 2002 at age 30. She endured extensive treatment to fix the problem, including two angioplasties. She died in her sleep, however, on March 9, 2003, leaving a large empty space in the world.

That space is filling, though, with the rich legacy she left behind. That legacy lives in the close to 50 people who came to the ceremony to honor and praise her. It lives in the hearts of people she touched in the many places she lived around the world.

It lives in the several scholarships that have been set up in her name. It lives in the many lives she empowered and in the voice she gave to those around her.

She accomplished much in her short life. Perhaps the dedication plaque says it best:

This pond is dedicated to Amanda Sancataldo, a woman of courage and imagination, who loved to sit by this water and reflect, a woman who made a difference in this world.