College money program works better & better
Reprinted with permission from Stanwood-Camano News: Published June 17, 2008
Getting a leg up in education changes lives forever — and for the better. For a small community, the Stanwood-Camano area raises a huge amount of money for scholarships to help graduating seniors from Stanwood High School attend college. This program gets bigger and better every year. This year the total given out to students was $130,475, the most ever. The number of students receiving money was 130, also the most ever.
On June 3, at a program sponsored by the American Legion, Frank Hancock Post 92 and Auxiliary, the scholarships were handed out at the high school. Following the presentations, Theresa Metzger, executive director of the Stanwood-Camano Area Foundation (SCAF), which administers many (not all, by any means) of the scholarships, was excited. “The recipients need to know that it’s not just the money this represents, but a connection with the community, generosity of the community,” she said. “That’s number one.”
Metzger said every one of the scholarships goes to a specific student for a specific reason. She said two new wrinkles this year were special thrills: The Stillaguamish Tribes, honoring and remembering family ancestors; and a veterans’ biker group called the American Legion Riders, Post 92. She said she loves to see the program grow and expand in new directions while hanging on to the traditional, year-after-year participants, many of which operate with endowment bases.
Terry Hislop, of the newly formed American Legion Riders Post 92, presents a scholarship to Community organizations, many of them non-profits, sell fish and chips, sell July 4 fireworks, conduct auctions and bake sales, and hold rummage sales to raise the funds, dollar by dollar, for the scholarships. There are even memorial donations and endowments. So, as Metzger says, donors achieve their own particular goals, and get a feeling of satisfaction, by giving to the program.
For those unfamiliar with the foundation, it has a new office, which is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It’s in Viking Village in the space formerly occupied by Electric Beach Tanning Salon. The phone number is 360-629-6878. As Stanwood Mayor Dianne White said in her remarks at the scholarship night, the hope is that the students will pick up on the spirit of giving that the program embodies and come back later to donate themselves to this self-perpetuating, highly valuable cause.
Dave Pinkham Editor and Publisher