Five years ago, an 18-year-old named Kenli Riney was involved in a head-on collision on a Texas highway. Her vehicle spun off the roadway into a ditch and ignited. What happened next — strangers sprinting toward a burning car — became the foundation of a scholarship program now based in Kerrville, Texas.
The Argote family was traveling behind Kenli that day and witnessed the crash. Mike Argote and three other men ran directly toward the flames and extracted her from the vehicle. Mike Argote sustained burns in the process, yet he began CPR. When he grew exhausted, his 14-year-old daughter Ema Argote took over compressions. She eventually recognized that Kenli had died, and the family encircled the young woman on the roadside to pray.
For a time, Kenli's relatives knew little about who had been with her in her final minutes. That changed when her uncle came across a Facebook post describing the rescue and realized the people who had tried to save her were the Argotes. The two families later met in person, and five years on they remain closely bonded by that brief act of courage.
Kenli's mother, Marjohn Riney, and her father, Kevin Riney, established the Kenli Foundation in Kerrville, Texas, the community the family had relocated to so they could support their daughter's pursuit of higher education. The organization exists to recognize people who move toward danger rather than away from it, and it awards scholarships to students who have demonstrated heroism, compassion, exceptional character, or a faith-centered life — qualities the foundation associates with Kenli.
"Strangers ran toward the fire," Marjohn Riney told Good News Network. "We exist to find more people like them."
To date, the foundation has recognized 67 individuals it describes as heroes and has distributed $67,000 directly to recipients for college, trade school, and graduate school. The awards honor Kenli, who was preparing to begin college with the goal of becoming an equine surgeon. In its first year, the foundation received 4 applications; this year it has already received 451.
Ema Argote was among this year's recipients. "Ema graduated high school this year, and of course we awarded her the scholarship," Marjohn Riney told the Hill Country Community Journal. "She's pursuing a degree at the University of Texas at San Antonio."
Each year, the foundation presents a scholarship to a graduate of Tivy High School in Kenli's memory. This year it also introduced the Argote Award Scholarship at San Saba High School, named for the family that attempted to save her.
For Kerrville and the surrounding Hill Country, the foundation represents a local legacy with a widening reach: a family's grief channeled into support for students who, like the Argotes, act when others hesitate.
