How the heck did this fund get started?
Whose bright idea was this?
At the 55th 2016 LHS Class of '61 reunion, several successful business alumni (some admitted to being marginal high school students….Claudia told CB to speak for himself), began to toss around the idea of a scholarship for bright, intelligent students who had potential to be successful in the next phase of their lives. Three of the scholarship dreamers, C.B. Bettisworth, Alan Richardson, and Claudia Harris took the vision to the next level and collected over $6,000 and opened a bank account for a future LHS scholarship.
Building, managing and implementing a continuing scholarship program is a daunting task. One obstacle of building a scholarship fund is the Class of '61 was not getting younger, and every year it was shrinking. Who would donate to a permanent scholarship fund and help it grow in the future?
The answer to this dilemma was, instead of a "LHS Class of '61 Scholarship" it could be more inclusive and be a "LHS Alumni Scholarship". This would greatly expand the donor base. Many LHS alumni classes have given back to the community, but there is a limit to the impact of one class. Imagine what the impact could be if all classes had the opportunity to come together to make a difference.
Then there was the challenge of who would manage the scholarship fund, who would be legally liable, who would apply for a Non-profit EIN#, who would file the tax return, who would advertise the opening of scholarship grants, who would decide the recipients, and on and on…..it's a LOT of work!
The Class of '61 visionaries then heard about Alaska Community Foundation (ACF). On June 19, 2019 the Lathrop High School Alumni Scholarship fund was opened at ACF with an initial $6,000.
Click on the next web page to learn more about The Alaska Community Foundation and everything it does for this scholarship fund.