Hundreds gathered Tuesday in Iola for the Allen County Community College Endowment Association Scholarship Luncheon where students met the people footing the bill for their schooling.
“We annually try to bring the donors together with the recipients in order to meet, converse and hopefully set up relationships that will last throughout their years at the community college and many years after,” said Rusty Arnold, endowment association president.
Through the ACCC Endowment Association, community members and others donate money that is invested in the market and the returns are used to help qualifying students pay for college.
Tuesday, Iolan and endowment association board member Bill Wolf spent the duration of the luncheon speaking with second year ACCC student Ashley Buss, the beneficiary of Wolf and wife Janelle’s endowed scholarship.
Wolf said they wanted the student benefiting from the scholarship to have a passion for music and a drive to succeed. Buss fits that description well, he said, with a background in music — Buss is a hobby trumpet player — and a future in the growing field of social service.
“That’s what we wanted — someone who likes music and appreciates it but doesn’t have to be a music major,” he said.
Bringing donors and recipients face-to-face, the yearly luncheon not only allows the donors to meet the students, but also for the students, it shows them that there are real people providing real money, Wolf said.
It also serves as reinforcement that donated dollars are impacting real people with real stories, Arnold said.
One such person is Tina Evans, a first-year ACCC student pursuing a career in the medical field. During Evans’ keynote address Tuesday, the Texas native told her story. When Evans couldn’t find work after coming to Iola one year ago to tend to family issues, her ailing mother urged her to go back to school.
“My mother said ‘This is your opportunity to get your adult education. Promise me one thing before I die. I want to see you … graduate from college,” she said.
Since then, Evans earned her general equivalency degree and, only because of the financial assistance provided by the Seabury Foundation, she is now enrolled at ACCC. Evans thanked all the donors for investing in the future by funding education today and encouraged her classmates to take full advantage of the opportunities provided to them through the endowment association.
Cindy Adams, ACCC Endowment Association director of development, said the ACCC community should be proud of itself for creating such a healthy and growing endowment, reporting that as of June 30, $4,292,000.77 can be found within its coffers.
“That’s remarkable,” she said. “When I started here in the summer of 2000 we had about $1.2 million.”
The endowment also added four more scholarships this school year.
Scholarship students, donors get acquainted during luncheon
