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 $50,000 Gift Sweetens Pot for Mason Promise Fund
by Sally Trout/Lansing State Journal The Mason Promise Scholarship Fund got a boost this week from the Dart Foundation with a $50,000 challenge grant to further the organization's goal to raise $275,000 over the next five years. Donations go to a permanent endowment to pay for two years of college education at Lansing Community College for accepted students from the Mason Public Schools. As in a similar program in the Lansing School District, Mason students are selected as fifth-graders with both students and parents agreeing to meet program requirements and responsibilities. The first group of Mason fifth-graders was selected last fall. Each student receives mentoring as part of the organization's Pathway Program through the middle and high school years. Those who complete high school then qualify for the college scholarship. "This challenge grant is just the boost we needed to motivate Mason area residents, businesses and organizations to support the Promise Scholarship Fund, which will benefit our children and ultimately the whole community," said Shireen Luther, who is co-chairwoman of the Mason scholarship program along with Liz Luttrell-Wilson. Under terms of the grant, Dart Foundation will pay $25,000 once there is $75,000 in the Promise Fund administered by the Capital Area Community Foundation. If the organization raises a total of $250,000, the Dart Foundation guarantees the $275,000 goal will be reached with another $25,000 gift. Grateful for the Dart Foundation grant, Mason Schools Superintendent James Harvey said the gift is a promise of its own. "This challenge grant will help ensure the future viability of the Promise Scholarship Program and enable the fund to keep its promise to make the dream of college attendance a reality for students who would otherwise have no such opportunity," Harvey said. |
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