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What We Do Bethel Educational Scholarship Team has accomplished a lot in the past 21 years. We now have an endowment of more than $900,000 to fund scholarships for Bethel District graduates. We are the local chapter for Dollars for Scholars and more than 500 schools and colleges will match our scholarships with equal dollar amounts. We receive generous regular donations from:
B.E.S.T. News Most businesses prepare a year-end report in December, but for a scholarship program, it is appropriate to review after awards are made in the spring. Bethel Educational Scholarship Team (B.E.S.T.) and the two new Dollars for Scholars (DFS) Chapters, Friends of Challenger DFS, and Graham Kapowsin DFS, awarded $110,575 in scholarships BEST presented over $80,600 in scholarship dollars to graduates of the four high schools within the Bethel School Dist: Bethel, Challenger Graham-Kapowsin and Spanaway Lake High Schools. This year BEST raised money through generous donations from Bethel District staff members, local families and businesses. Many scholarships are family memorial scholarships, others are awarded by local businesses. The Graham Business Association gave twelve scholarships, proceeds from an annual auction held during their December meeting. Two separate alumni events have raised money each year for scholarships, too. Twenty-one Promise Scholarships were awarded to sixth grade students from the districts’ elementary schools. BEST promises these at-risk students that there will be a $500 scholarship for them when they graduate from a Bethel district secondary school. BEST has been instrumental in starting new DFS scholarship chapters at two secondary schools in the district, Challenger, an alternative school, and Graham Kapowsin High School, the newest high school in the district. The focus of these new chapters is to create an additional source of scholarship dollars for their students and to involve students more closely in the fund-raising portion of providing scholarships. Friends of Challenger DFS Chapter awarded four scholarships worth a total of $14,000 in its first year of existence. The Graham Kapowsin DFS Chapter gave nine scholarships for a total of $4,750. All three of the District DFS Chapters have trust funds invested with Greater Tacoma Community Foundation. The long-term goal is to develop trust funds that will generate enough income to provide scholarships for all applicants. BEST, the most established of the chapters after 20 years, has funds of over $900,000. Bethel District chapters are three of 14 DFS Chapters in Pierce County, and 140 in the state of Washington. |
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College costs are rising.
Government funds are shrinking. And many promising students cannot
afford to realize their dreams of a post-secondary education. At a time
when education should be a top priority for our country, access to
education needs to be equally important.
