Delaney Marchant Memorial Scholarship Fund

Delaney's selflessness and desire to help others makes a scholarship fund the perfect way to pay tribute to her. The funds will go towards two scholarships that exhibit Delaney's biggest passions: theatre and Taekwondo. The theatre scholarship will go towards graduating seniors of SCHS pursuing an education in theatre, while the Taekwondo scholarship will go towards a deserving Taekwondo student. Delaney's legacy will forever live on through these students.

On April 28, we lost the most beautiful soul to Covid complications. Delaney was our light, our world, our purpose, and our continued inspiration. Below is a brief story we wanted to share highlighting how much she impacted the world in her short 23 years.

Delaney’s Story

12/1998 to 4/2022

Our beautiful, feisty, funny, kind, driven, talented, and witty Laney Bug touched, changed, and dramatically influenced more lives in 23 years than most do in 90.

When just a young child, she had a natural gift for artistic creations and performing. From the early days of her life until recently, she would go out in the garage with her supplies and draw, make clay figures, create videos, paint, build things, and sew. I remember she began making her own Halloween costumes from around age 7: SpongeBob, a Jellyfish, a giant Sushi Roll, Legend of Korra, Wonder Woman, and many more over the years. Her SpongeBob was a giant painted cardboard box, and instead of arms coming out the front, they went out the side, which wasn’t very functional…we all laughed about that for many years.

She also loved music and knew details and words of just about every genre, including the oldies of her parents. We always knew when Delaney was in a good mood, as she belted out show tunes in the shower. At around 12 or 13, she would bring her ukulele down to the San Clemente Pier and busk with a friend, singing and playing, and rack up some pretty good dough.

Passionate about ‘everything’ was an understatement with Delaney. I guarantee there were few that ever won an argument with this girl. And her logic, facts, and resources to back it up were always there. I think many of us found ourselves perplexed and not necessarily agreeing with all her points at first, but at the end of the argument, you couldn’t help but agree on some level and were almost envious and humbled by her dedication to the fight and cause. She was an ally for LGBTQ, the disabilities community, racial injustice, and any other cause that needed support, compassion, and understanding; a UC Berkeley Bear through and through. Her first week at CAL, she called home while at a protest rally that she was only tasked to run the soundboard but found herself in the middle of the street on the ground stopping traffic. Now, I don’t think she was so much into the cause for ‘don’t eat meat’ at the time, but Delaney loved to be in the middle of the action… so Laney! …she did eventually become Vegan.

She was always a leader, whether organically, elected, or just being ‘bossy girl’ to get things done. She also loved ‘teaching’. If she could guide someone that was struggling, she was always there.

Her love and friendship with her sister Kasey warmed our hearts as parents. Oh, don’t think there weren’t constant sisterly battles, bantering, roasting, and sibling rivalry, but as they both matured into beautiful young women, we loved how they confided, trusted, and shared with each other.

Delaney earned her 2nd Degree Blackbelt in Taekwondo and became an instructor at Taekwondojang in San Juan Capistrano. This was her happy place for so many years. This discipline taught her not only physical endurance but helped enforce her already natural character trait of having compassion and respect for all. While working at the Dojang, Delaney was honored to participate in working with the GRIP program, a program to help prevent youth from participating in gang activity. She said it reminded her of how fortunate and grateful she was to have resources and a loving family.

Delaney was captain of a team for Relay for Life for several years in a row. She understood personally from friends and family, and from within our community, how cancer has damaged so many lives. She always made this fundraiser a fun event with hopefulness of finding a cure someday.

Theatre was truly her passion! We saw many, many musicals over the years. Her love of performance started in early elementary school at Truman Benedict when she scored the lead of the Little Red Hen. She was hooked from there and performed all through Bernice Ayer Middle and San Clemente High School. Whether she was cast as Milky White (the cow) in Into the Woods, or Grandmama in the Addams Family (old lady that farts as she would say), Delaney dedicated herself to the part. She not only performed in theatre but she was the Captain of the high school Improv Team known as Comedy Sports.

Delaney held many jobs that motivated her, in and outside of entertainment. From Stage Manager at UC Berkeley, Laguna Playhouse, and Saddleback College, to an internship with Paramount Pictures. She also was a Visual Designer for a production at Cal State San Marcos. Laney also worked as an Event Management Assistant at a wedding planning company, always working to learn new skills. Of course, we think she really just thrived on being involved in high-end weddings and in the middle of the excitement.

She just recently received her dream job as Art and Design Coordinator at Laika, LLC, a stop-gap animation studio in Oregon and was to start in May 2022.

Animal lover is an understatement for Delaney. She loved all critters and always had some form of fish, lizard, tortoise, or dog in her life. Delaney worked for a year as a Dog Trainer at Petco and received her training certification from the AKC. This gave her so much joy! Her side jobs always included babysitting and pet sitting, and many times both.

Laney was always dedicated to learning. She thought it would be a good idea to get an MBA to help bridge her entertainment career with business knowledge, and last year she began pursuing her MBA online at Cal State Chico.

Delaney’s amazing life did not come without struggle. Her senior year of high school, Delaney was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, a severe case of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The next 5 years of her life were a constant juggle of medications, emergency room and doctor visits, infusions, and side effects from the disease and medications. Although she was able to find some stability with medication, there are so many underlying emotional and physical issues with this illness. She was such a warrior. Her team at UC Irvine Medical was such an amazing support system for Delaney, and for us as parents and caretakers. We are forever grateful.

This story is just a small sampling of the way our Laney tackled her short but very full life. We are most proud of her commitment to helping others, her kindness, her deep love of friends and family, and her dedication to everything she did.

We will miss you beyond words, but the joy you brought us all will touch our lives forever. We promise to live our lives as Laney would with kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and tenacity, always sprinkled with a bit of comedic Laney sarcasm.

Delaney is survived by her Mom and Dad, Bob and Kathy Marchant; Sister Kasey Marchant; Grandma Jean Peloquin; Step Grandma Laurie Meehan; her many amazing Aunts and Uncles, Linda and Nicole Marchant, Uncle Buck, Bob and Pam Meehan, Brian and Amy Meehan, David Meehan, John and Katie Meehan; Cousins, Katie and Kelly Meehan, Vivian and Violet Marchant, Jennifer, Stella, and Bobby Sprain, and Amber and Jewel Sinkinson.

Deceased but always remembered: Uncle Greg Marchant, Nana Marchant, PawPaw Murphy, Grandpa Bob Meehan.

She is also survived by so many of our family friends that treated her as their own, and her close friends that she held so dearly.