In October of 2022, Leo McCarthy appeared on Episode No. 16 of the ButteCast.

In that episode, Leo talked about losing his 14-year-old daughter, Mariah, to an underage drunk driver in October of 2007. He talked about forming Mariah’s Challenge in its aftermath.

Mariah’s Challenge came from a promise made by Leo as he delivered a touching eulogy for his daughter at St. Ann’s Church. If they didn’t drink while underage and promised never to get into a car with a driver who had been drinking, he said, he would have money for them to go to college.

He thought he was talking to a few friends of Mariah and her older sister Jenna. As it turns out, the entire brokenhearted community was listening.

So, on Feb. 8, 2008, Leo launched Mariah’s Challenge as Butte High and Anaconda played a basketball doubleheader at the Butte Civic Center.

The goal of the movement was to change the dangerous culture that accepted drinking and driving as something we all just sometimes do. He said it would be a success if he got to just one person.

As it turns out, he did a whole lot more than that.

This Wednesday, the 17th Mariah’s Challenge Scholarship Ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. at the Montana Tech Library Auditorium. That is something I encourage all of you to check out, even if you do not know any of the 17 scholarship winners.

This year, Mariah’s Challenge is reaching a milestone. The total money in scholarships given out will reach $500,000.

More importantly, Mariah’s Challenge has reached 500 high school graduates. Leo calls them Mariah’s Messengers.

Of course, it is not only high school students who have been impacted by Mariah’s Challenge. The number of lives saved is impossible to count, but we know it has been many.

Yesterday, I met with Leo at his State Farm office to once again talk about Mariah’s Challenge.

This time, we got to reflect on so much of the good that has happened since the tragedy, and we got to do a little bragging about a $500,000 milestone.

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