BLOOMINGBURG — Eileen Haworth Weil has proven to be as influential in death as she was in life.

The community activist and educator passed away in 2012, but her impact was so profound that her husband Andy and the Sullivan County Human Rights Commission subsequently launched the Eileen Haworth Weil Scholarship Fund.

Held at the Eagle's Nest in Bloomingburg, April 24's Fourth Annual Brunch was the time for supporters, donors and Weil's family to gather in her memory, honor three similarly inspiring community members, and give a $1,000 scholarship to Catalina Peruchet.

A SUNY Sullivan graduate and single mom, Peruchet is on the board of People for Equal Justice in Liberty and is pursuing a criminal justice degree from SUNY Albany.

She hopes to become a human rights attorney.

“Love is universal,” said Peruchet upon receiving her scholarship Sunday, “and Eileen and Andy have given it to us.”

The brunch also lauded people who share Weil's commitment to social causes.

• Tim Havas, the leader of the Sullivan Legal Aid Panel and an accomplished attorney, was recalled by Legal Aid Panel member Donna Schick as a “skinny young man with a full head of hair” when he first applied to work as a bellhop at Grossinger's in Liberty.

These days, now a few years older, he and his team handle around 3,000 cases for the indigent every year.

“He is one of our county's best attorneys and a man of integrity,” said Schick.

Havas credited his parents, who fled war-torn Europe and settled in Mongaup Valley.

“I remember from a very young age how dedicated and fervent they were about human rights,” he related, recalling that even if a person is in the wrong, his mom advised him to “overlook that, because they are the underdog, and right or wrong, they need someone to speak out on their behalf.

“I've spent my entire legal career defending the disadvantaged, the indigent, the underdog - even if they're wrong,” Havas said, encouraging listeners to do the same.

• Awardee Stuart Hirsch was lauded by friend Gary Silver as “a natural-born leader [who's] dedicated his life to serving those in need.”

Hirsch credited his upbringing in Sullivan County with leading him into the medical field, where he developed a deep interest and experience in medevac rescues. He created and serves with Archangel Airborne - flying to crisis points in places like Haiti and Central America - and is board chairman and president of Operation Endeavor, a nonprofit which develops global emergency medical services.

“I think that our county is an incredible place,” Hirsch affirmed. “... I am so thankful to it and the people who raised me.

“... Everything I do personally comes from the gifts I received here.”

• For nearly 25 years, Penny Medina has been a beloved English-as-a-Second-Language teacher at Liberty Central School and a constant “source of validation, encouragement and pride” for hundreds of students and their families, according to friend Kathie Aberman.

Medina has particularly focused on Liberty's burgeoning Hispanic community, running a bilingual summer reading program at the library and serving as the school's liaison for the Annual Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute.

Add in activities with Girl Scouts and Rotary, plus extensive travel and education, and you have an educator with “an enormous heart,” said Aberman.

“I love my job and the population I work with,” Medina affirmed. “They've really given more to me than I think I've given to them.”

Ever humble, Medina concluded, “I'm just trying to do something to make it better for others where I live and where I work.”

Just like Eileen ...