St. Ignace Area Community Foundation Gives $21,118 in Scholarships, Grants

Several students and graduates of LaSalle High School were awarded scholarships from the St. Ignace Community Foundation and the Robert Buchholz ScholarshipWednesday, May 23. Pictured are (front, from left) Desiree Allan, Sydney Schroeder, Kesley Cryderman, Erica Ahlich, Alex Sposito, Allison Brown, Cally Klimczak, Jessica McGinnis, Jenny Massaway; (back) Derrick Clark, Derek Rountree, Jake Weiss, Josh Fenlon, Lewie Mullins, Dan Olsen, and Shelly McLeod. Missing from the photograph are Ashley St. Louis and Megan Gustafson.

A total of $21,118.28 was awarded for scholarships and grants to 11 local groups and 19 LaSalle High School students by the St. Ignace Area Community Foundation at the St. Ignace Public Library Wednesday, May 23.

Grants awarded to agencies totaled $10,293.28, with the St. Ignace Tennis Courts Committee, an ad-hoc group of city officials, citizens, and students, receiving the largest sum, $3,000, to upgrade the surface of the courts and replace equipment.

Other grant recipients are as follows:

+ St. Ignace softball and baseball programs: $1,800 to install a better drainage system and resurface the infields at LaSalle's two diamonds, and to purchase new jerseys for the softball team.

+ Fishermen's Memorial Committee: $1,000 to erect a memorial on the waterfront in honor of local fishermen who have perished while fishing.

+ St. Ignace Area Schools music department: $1,000 to fund the cost of sending students to summer music camps.

+ Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District: $1,000 to support the ISD's Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which encourages young children to read by providing them with a book each month for five years. The program is for children up to age five. Parents can register children for the program through the ISD Web site.

+ Gros Cap School: $520 for the purchase of durable digital cameras for students to use.

+ LaSalle High School National Honor Society: $500 to help fund the installation of new flagpoles on the high school grounds.

+ St. Ignace Middle School/ Elementary School boys basketball program: $500 to fund the cost of sending more than 30 players to basketball camps during the summer.

+ St. Ignace Area Schools technology department: $365 for the purchase of a digital camera to be used for the school Web site.

+ St. Ignace Public Library: $308.28 for the purchase of easels to display art, graphs, or photographs for library events.

+ Mackinac Project Drug Abuse Resistance Education: $300 for the purchase of a passive alcohol sensor, a device that measures alcohol content for demonstrations.

A total of $7,825 was awarded to 17 high school students for scholarships from the foundation's Education Enhancement Fund, McKinnon Fund, Erin Springsteen Fund, Fred Stearns Fund, and the Loryce Dyer Fund.

Recipients included Erica Ahlich, Jenny Massaway, Desiree Allan, Shelly McLeod, Allison Brown, Lewis Mullins, Kelsey Cryderman, Daniel Olsen, Derrick Clark, Derek Rountree, Joshua Fenlon, Ashley St. Louis, Jessica McGinnis, Sydney Schroeder, Stevie Gould, Jacob Weiss, and Cally Klimczak.

Three students received the Robert Buchholz Scholarship, each receiving $1,000. They include Alex Sposito, Megan Gustafson, and Kelsey Cryderman. Funding for this year's Buchholz Scholarships was raised through the Moran Township School District, which oversees the fund and annually holds a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for the scholarship.

Graduates of LaSalle who received scholarships were Jenny Massaway, a 2006 graduate enrolled at Saginaw Valley State University; Megan Gustafson, a 2006 graduate enrolled at Michigan State University; Ashley St. Louis, a 2006 graduate enrolled at Grand Valley State University, and Shelly McLeod, a 2003 graduate who is pursuing a master's degree at Central Michigan University.