Medical Lake Dollars for Scholars earns $5,000 grant

Medical Lake’s Dollars for Scholars chapter received a $5,000 grant to augment the work it does in the community.

Now comes time to figure out how volunteers can put that money into motion.

Scholarship America is the parent organization to Dollars for Scholars affiliates across the country. This is one of only two grants awarded in the Pacific Northwest region but will need to be equally matched in order to add it to its already significant pool of money.

Scholarship America is based out of St. Paul, Minn. and provides scholarship services to the Fortune 500 companies. The late Dr. Irving A. Fradkin, an optometrist, was the founder of Scholarship America and subsequently Dollars for Scholars.

His theory was if everyone in a small community gave just $1, that would fund the needs of all the graduating seniors in his hometown and allow them to attend college.

And that’s what has been done in Medical Lake where their DFS chapter was formed in 2000, putting the wheels in motion for the ability to raise enough funds to give away $10,500 to school grads in the inaugural year.

Since its inception, the Medical Lake club has raised in excess of $535,000. There is another $110,000 in a permanent endowment account.

“That would allow the issuing of scholarships if the organization went away for some reason,” board member and spokesman Steve Meltzer said.

The coffers are replenished each year by staging two fundraisers.

The “Spring Thing” a dinner, dance and auction occurs in mid-March. Then in the first weekend of May comes “The Super Yard Sale,” which typically average $10,000 – $11,000 per year, but this year had proceeds that topped $15,000.

Expenses are small in the all-volunteer organization. “The biggest expense is the fee we have to pay Scholarship America each year,” Meltzer said.

What they did about five years ago was develop an online scholarship application called Chapter Net, which is the tool used to assist with the scholarship process.

The Medical Lake class of 2018 received over $32,000 in funds from Dollars for Scholars. That number used to be about $40,000 but a couple of donors decided to go on their own to dole out the funds. Typically in the past, chapters provided one-year scholarships ranging from $300 to $1,000, Meltzer said.

There was one four-year ongoing scholarship provided by the estate of the late Howard Jorgenson, a well-known Medical Lake resident known for fundraising abilities. It is named in his honor.

“He was one of our original board members,” Meltzer said.

One student receives $1,000 per year for four years. That has built to the point where four students per year received that scholarship.

Help from groups like Dollars for Scholars is vital these days for post-secondary bound students. Average student debt for an undergrad coming out of college is about $29,000 according to Scholarship America.

Supporting just the freshman year is not enough, Meltzer said. “We have to find a way to keep the students in school and to fund them, at least in part, through those four years,” he added. That’s where the $5,000 grant program that the Medical Lake chapter recently was awarded. It incentivizes chapters to do more multi-year awards.

The Medical Lake Dollars for Scholars chapter is currently exploring all options to find a source for the $5,000 match, but cannot use any existing money.

One option that is being considered is what board member and scholarship chair, Sherry Niblock said is an online portal through the local DFS website, which is undergoing a revamp.

When complete, a payment or donation portal embedded in the website will allow reoccurring payments or donations.

She suggested an example of $3 per month, “Something easy for people to digest,” Niblock said. If just 5 percent of the population decided to donate $3 per month the goal is easily realized.

MORE INFORMATION

To find out more about Medical Lake Dollars for Scholars and how you can help, visit: http://www.medicallake.dollarsforscholars.org

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.