This year’s students are a big, wonderful and worthy bunch that deserve generous support.
Way back in 1986, a group of parents and educators gathered with the common vision of giving our graduating seniors a warm send-off as they moved towards realizing their future goals.
These parents formed a nonprofit board, now known as the Vashon Community Scholarship Foundation (VCSF). Its mission was to create scholarships that recognized students’ unique qualities and strengths and encouraged them to reach for further academic or professional training.
The awards were funded by big-hearted donors from our island community, including businesses, mission-driven organizations, and many, many families. It has now become a tradition on the island to create a scholarship honoring someone who has died, invoking their memory each year and letting their light be a guide to a kindred group of young people.
This year, there are 126 scholarship applicants from the class of 2025 — a 30% bump from last year and the largest group of participants we’ve had in several decades! This year’s group is a big, wonderful and worthy bunch that deserves generous support.
For the students, submitting a scholarship application notebook is an introspective effort. We provide a series of prompts that leads them to take account of their lives to this point, elucidating the life experiences that have been most meaningful to them and where their futures might lead.
Donors, board members and a volunteer panel of reviewers get to know the students during a four month process of carefully reading notebooks. It’s like a game of Tetris — finding the scholarship that will most inspire the student, and the student who embodies the purpose of the scholarship.
VCSF’s annual ceremony is held in May, when scholarships are presented and each student is celebrated with a tribute read by one of ten or so island characters. Recipients meet with their donors following the event, which makes for a fun reveal.
After witnessing the magic of last year’s ceremony, parent Viveka McIntyre was moved to join the board: “I was so impressed by the enormous generosity of the people on our island,” she said. “ My boys all benefited and I want to see others benefit as well.”
Our board president, Jane Slade, was similarly recruited at the 2018 ceremony, where she watched as her daughter’s class learned about the sometimes-hidden assets of their peers and the island at large. What a wealth this is, she thought — well beyond the dollar figure.
For VCSF, this year feels like trying to feed an unexpectedly large group of guests! We invite you to join us in supporting these graduates who will become leaders, creators, thinkers, problem solvers. The impact that even modest gifts from the community make upon the individual students is immeasurable.
We embrace the potential to build relationships with new and long-time islanders, small business owners, alumni, clubs and neighbors. Add yours to the list of custom scholarships, or contribute to a general fund where we pool donations to provide scholarships to, for example, high-achieving students (Academic Excellence Awards); students who found motivation through team sports (Love of the Game Awards); and students who might have a narrow special interest or whose unique histories or plans inspire board members to craft an award especially for them.
Our mission is our engine, but our donors are the fuel that makes scholarships a reality.
There are fun plans in the works for scholarship fundraisers as we make our way into 2025. Look for us in front of Thriftway from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 21. We’ll be selling fabulous home baked treats, many with a holiday theme. Fill your holiday table and help send a kid to college!
For more information, visit vashonscholarships.org.
Linda Mather and Beth Tuttle are board members of the Vashon Community Scholarship Foundation.
Sign Up
This year’s students are a big, wonderful and worthy bunch that deserve generous support.
Readers write in about Fire Chief Matt Vinci’s job move and more.
This week marks the completion of Vashon’s long-awaited Island Center Homes project.
