Posted on February 5, 2007 at 4:30 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – WGN-TV anchorman Steve Sanders and his wife, Julie, have donated a $25,000 gift to create the Lauren McLellan Sanders Endowed Scholarship in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS). The University of Alabama Board of Trustees approved the scholarship during its Feb. 2 meeting.

Sanders, who worked as a WVTM-13 news reporter and anchor in Birmingham from 1979 to 1983, gave the gift to provide financial support and encouragement to students entering the SBS. The gift also honors the memory of the Sanders’ daughter, Lauren McLellan, who died of an undiagnosed neurological disease at the age of 6.

Sanders earned his undergraduate degree from UAB in 1978. His wife, Julie Sanders, graduated from UAB in 1979. Sanders now co-anchors Chicago’s top-rated WGN-TV “News at Nine.”