By: Dana Such
Aaron Bramley’s Spirit Lives On: Honoring an Emerge Classmate
“I’m a cancer survivor. I founded a film organization to promote non-profits. And I’m headed to my Dad’s gay wedding this weekend.” This is how I met Aaron Bramley — in a networking exercise in our very first Emerge class in 2013.
Aaron was a driven innovator and problem solver. As a co-founder of Lights. Camera. Help., he leaned into a belief that storytelling could amplify a non-profit’s reach and better connect them to the funding necessary to make their greatest impact in our community. It wasn’t long after our Leadership Austin Emerge graduation that fellow classmate, Nicole Beckley, and I were attending the Texas Freelance Association launch party in support of Aaron, a co-founder of the organization. Yet another instance when Aaron was assessing needs and solutions, connecting people and building community.
It was a wonderful pleasure to know Aaron — to experience his contagious energy, and to wait for the next solution he’d bring about. To receive notifications of his generous support of the causes dear to my heart. To get excited about connecting new entrepreneurs to Aaron, knowing they’d find a supportive champion in him. And it was rough. To receive his updates as he battled cancer (and insurance providers) again in 2017. In his final days, Aaron set up a Go Fund Me account for his son’s education. It was one of the final ways that many of us in his class got to support Aaron and his family.
When Aaron passed away — for someone who knew him in somewhat of a limited capacity — I felt this loss deeply. He was a champion of good in the world and had such a fire ignited within him. I felt called to honor Aaron’s life and keep his strong spirit alive by encouraging other like-minded leaders to carry on the torch.
With the help of the Leadership Austin staff, the Emerge Class of 2013 rallied to create the Aaron Bramley Memorial Scholarship with a gusto fitting of our dear friend. It is an honor and a privilege for myself and my classmates to provide this scholarship to aid four emerging leaders, those storytellers of our community, with funding for their Leadership Austin Emerge experience this year.
On the evening of their very first class, the same setting in which I first met Aaron, I was glad to tell the incoming class a little bit about our friend, to encourage them to find their authentic voices and be the drivers of positive change. I think we could all benefit to remember that passion and energy and warmth that Aaron exemplified and carry on the torch with our own gifts in each of our lives.