Staff Sergeant
The Foundation
Kyu Hyuk Chay was killed in action on October 28, 2006. He was 34. This foundation was created by his family to continue the two things he gave his time to: his community, and the next generation.
What we do
Annual giving · No application
Once a year we give directly to local fire, ambulance and police departments — the people who turn out when someone else’s worst day arrives. No forms, no reporting conditions, because they know their own needs better than we do.
Beginning 2026 · Grades 6–12 · Students overseas with a genuine interest in healthcare
We pay for tutoring, exam fees, books and college preparation for students with a genuine interest in healthcare whose families are posted outside the United States in long‑term service — missionary, humanitarian, development, educational, diplomatic or military — and who have no local access to that support. We are starting with missionary families.
Why
Kyu put his law career on hold to enlist. He believed that what you do for other people matters more than what you do for yourself.
Children whose parents serve overseas grow up away from the schools, tutors and counselors that shape an American student’s path to college — and they pay more to sit the same exams. Most of the help that exists arrives at college. The years before it are the ones that decide whether college is possible at all, and those are the years we work in.
That is the gap we work in.
He marched to the beat of his own drum. He blazed his own path. But he did so with kindness and generosity.
Kyu Tae Chay, brother
Where we are
In 2026 we are giving $1,000 each to a local fire department, police department and ambulance corps. Chay Scholars takes on its first student as soon as one student’s year is funded — because a year of tutoring is a promise to a child, and we make it once we can keep it. Our budget, our spending and our IRS filings are published on the donate page.
Lately
We post on Facebook and Instagram as things happen. This is the Facebook feed, loaded only when you scroll to it.
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