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WHS Class of 1968 Establishes Endowed Scholarship Fund with Foundation - August 15, 2008
(Aug. 14, 2008) Wamego, KS — The Wamego High School graduating class of 1968 has established an endowed scholarship fund with the Wamego Community Foundation. The first scholarship, which will be awarded in 2009, will be worth approximately $250 and will be available to a Wamego High School graduating senior who has been accepted into any accredited school.
“We established the fund with the Foundation in April with $1,878 we already had in our class checking account,” said Dennis Darting, Baldwin. “We needed to have a minimum of $5,000 to endow the scholarship fund, so Tom Doperalski and I each pledged to contribute $1,000 if our classmates could come up with the remainder. We basically raised the rest of the funds by presenting the challenge at our 40th year class reunion in July.”
The class of 1968 originally established a scholarship fund on their own in 1993 by opening a checking account to be used solely for scholarship donations and awards. Each year a committee from the class of ’68 would choose one recipient from that year’s WHS graduating class, and they would write a check from the checking account directly to that student.
“Although it made us feel good that we were able to personally present a student with the scholarship money each year,” Darting said, “we realized that we aren’t going to be around forever to write that check each time. Plus, none of the donations made by our classmates over the past 15 years were tax deductible.”
Darting and his classmates realized that establishing an endowed scholarship fund through the Community Foundation would allow the recipient to be recognized at the Foundation’s annual Awards Luncheon as well as allow all future donations to the fund to be fully tax deductible as a charitable contribution.
“Endowed funds exist in perpetuity and annually grant back a portion of the money earned on the investment,” noted René Eichem, WCF executive director. “The remainder is put back into the endowment so it continues to grow. By establishing the fund through the Community Foundation, the class of 1968 has effectively ensured that at least one scholarship will be given to a student every year— for eternity.”
For more information about the Class of 1968 Scholarship Fund, or to donate online, visit www.thewcf.org.
The Wamego Community Foundation was established in 1998 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. It created an efficient mechanism through which individuals, families, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and private foundations have been able to create funds and make gifts to benefit Wamego and surrounding communities. Since its inception, the Foundation has received approximately $1.2 million in gifts and donations and has distributed back more than $500,000 to the community, including the river access boat ramp, scholarships, the Wam-Sag-Man recreation trail, and the Friends of the Park, just to name a few.
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For more information, please contact:
René Eichem, executive director
Wamego Community Foundation
529 Lincoln Ave. | P.O. Box 25
Wamego, KS 66547
P: 785-456-8444 | F: 785-456-8443
wcf@wamego.net | www.thewcf.org
| Wamego Community Foundation • PO Box 25 • Wamego KS 66547 • P: 785-456-8444 • F: 785-456-8443 • E-mail |