Dollars for Scholars funds available for fall semester

By Meg Olson

With leftover funds after a slow spring application season, the local Dollars for Scholars chapter is opening up fall applications for local post-secondary students.

“Donations were down approximately 40 percent this year, but scholarship applications were also way lower,” said Point Roberts Dollars for Scholars secretary/treasurer Linda Hughes. “Only four applicants successfully completed the online application process,” while seven students began the process but did not complete it.

In 2015 the organization raised approximately $10,000.00, and this year it was closer to $6,000, Hughes said. With only four $500 scholarships awarded they had $4,000 left for the fall awards.

Dollars for Scholars has experienced organizational disarray in the last few years, as a short-handed board ushered the local chapter back under the umbrella of the national organization Scholarship America and moved to their online application process.

“We are mandated by Scholarship America to only take online applications,” Hughes said, which has caused some confusion among applicants as board members struggled to keep the website current and up to date.

At their September 7 meeting the board appointed two new members, Ron Hansen and Brian Calder.

The four successful applicants for the spring 2016 scholarships were Alex Peltier and Beth Passburg, who were awarded $500 each for continuing college education, Bo Glaser who received the $500 Minda Eadie Wilson Scholarship in memory of Don Wilson, and Charles Glaser who received the $500 Brian Calder Citizenship Award.

Fall scholarship applications are now open online at bit.ly/2dlZw2l and applicants can begin the process under the Students and Parents tab. Written information on that tab still reflects the 2015/2016 dates but Hughes said applications submitted between now and October 15 will be reviewed for the fall awards by a blind panel.

The fall awards will be for $500, with an added incentive award of $500 for students who maintain an average GPA of 3.5 or higher in their first term.