Published: November 16, 2009 08:38 am      

Scholarship fund tops $100,000

Money raised in under five years mostly by area farmers.

WALTON — A scholarship for Lewis Cass High School students is proof that if everyone gives a little, a lot can be accomplished.

The scholarship fund, established in 2004, has recently topped $100,000.

“This money has come from individuals,” said Cass County Community Foundation board member Joyce Eshelman. “It came from bus drivers and teachers and moms and dads, people who said ‘Yes, here’s $50, here’s 20 bucks.”

Eshelman said a group of about 20 people kicked off the scholarship five years ago. She and Bill Fouts chaired a steering committee for the scholarship efforts.

“The purpose was to establish a scholarship for both four-year university-bound students and for vocational or trade school students,” Eshelman said.

She explained providing scholarship opportunities to those students who do not follow the traditional college route was important.

“That was the big hook for a lot of people,” Eshelman said. “Because it does seem most times it is the same top 5 or 10 percent of the graduating class that obtain scholarship money.

“We wanted to reach out to maybe that level of kids that thought they’d never go to school.”

The Cass County Community Foundation has served as an umbrella organization to manage the funds for the scholarship, but the scholarship’s steering committee is in charge of selecting the award recipients.

The scholarship’s fund has received most of its money from the Walton area Crops for Kings program. Crops for Kings allows farmers to donate money from their crops. For instance, if a farmer is taking in grain to a local elevator, he can designate the money from a certain number of bushels to go to the scholarship.

“In my opinion this was a stroke of genius,” Eshelman said. “We have farmers that do this year after year. They know something that they grew in the corporation goes back to the Southeastern School Corporation.”

The corp. typically gives three $1,000 scholarships each year. Two are academic and one is vocational.

Students may find applications both at Lewis-Cass High School and the community foundation. Information about the scholarship is also available at the school corp.’s Web site, www.sesc.k12.in.us/. The deadline for applicants is in the spring.

The scholarship is a point of pride for both Eshelman and the community, she said.

“It is people in the community giving back to the community,” she said. “They don’t do it to get their name on a plaque. That’s one of the joys of living in a small town.”

Jennifer Tangeman is a reporter for the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5148 or jennifer.tangeman@pharostribune.com.