First recipient makes most of scholarship

Photo above, Sue Barker, left, with APL’s Taylor Muller and Mt. Vernon graduate Rhealyn Reagan, a recipient of the Cole Barker scholarship she used to get exactly where she wanted her career–path to go.

The Cole Barker Scholarship put Rhealyn Reagan on the road pulling a 32-foot surgical suite behind a ton and a half Dodge pickup every day to one of the 28 locations where APL Low Cost Spay, Neuter and Vaccination services are offered.

Career-wise, “It’s perfect,” said Rhealyn, who was already working in the local vet’s practice when she landed the first of the Barker family’s memorial scholarships in 2018. In addition to work as a licensed trucker, three years into her career with APL she’s a surgery tech and soon to be Certified Veterinary Assistant.

“I got my English teacher to help and worked a couple of weeks on my scholarship application,” said Rhealyn, who’s had to learn to power through a mild dose of dyslexia she’s reduced from crippling to an aggravation, slowing down to focus on context when wondering if she’s seeing a “b” or a “d” or whether that 6 might be a 9 or vice versa when running numbers.

It was a detail that never clouded the judgement of Ron and Sue Barker, who created the scholarship in memory of the son killed in a skiing accident.

“We had such faith in her,” said Sue, who connected Rhealyn’s hope of working with animals to memories of her great grandfather, Raymond Reagan.

“When I was growing up I remember him coming to help work cattle,” she said. “They called him ‘Moose’ because of his strength.”

Rhealyn was in her first semester at Northeast Texas Community College when she applied for the job she landed with APL.