$10,500 in Scholarships Awarded
Brick:
The Chamber of Commerce here, representing businesses throughout OceanCounty, has been awarding
scholarships to students for at least twenty years and this year was no
exception. Ten (10) scholarships for a
total of $10,500 were given for continuing education in a variety of disciplines.
Scholarship
awards were made for specific courses of study and were underwritten by Chamber
of Commerce members and several individuals. An award for a student pursuing a
career in medicine or dentistry was donated by Princeton Dental and was awarded to Joanna Konopka; Lauren
McElroy received a scholarship donated by Briarmill Pharmacy for pursuing a career in the medical field. Daniel Governale was the recipient of
the award for a student studying architecture, engineering or related fields that
was donated by Barlo & Associates,
Architects/Abatare Builders.
In
addition to these directed scholarsips, the Brick Township Chamber of Commerce Educational
Foundation also gave awards to Kristen Dolan, Meghan King, Christina Lyness,
Alicia Sabatino, Ryan Puza, Anthony Cantor, and Thomas Martins.
Recipients were recognized at a
cocktail party on May 4th that was held in their honor and to celebrate the
growth of the Educational Foundation’s Tree
of Learning. The event took place in
the Township’s MunicipalBuilding,
which is the location of the Tree of
Learning, an artwork that is affixed to a wall in the center hallway and
“grows” with leaves, medallions and boulders that are inscribed with the names
of people and businesses.
Guests
enjoyed hors d’oeuvres compliments of Muscle Maker Grill and wine compliments
of Wine World. “Friends” of the evening included Briarmill Pharmacy, Pinewood
Mobile Home Park, LeisurePark, PIP Printing
and Flowers By Addalia provided beautiful floral arrangements to the festive
event.
The Brick Township Chamber of Commerce Educational
Foundation, Inc. has, to date, given over $90,000 in scholarships to area
students.
Did you know?
First, some basics. You might not even realize that our Chamber performs public service through an educational foundation. The Brick Township Chamber of Commerce Educational Foundation, Inc. (quite a mouthful to say!), is a qualified 501c (3) as determined by the IRS. We have been making scholarship awards to deserving students for 20 years!
Now some details about why we spend time on this. We do it because we always strive to be good corporate citizens, because our members care about the communities they do business in, because giving is a good thing and because education is a path to success and achievement.
Nice thoughts, but how do we accomplish these goals? This answer isn’t too complicated. We award scholarships to students who show promise and need. Every spring we mail applications to our members and encourage them to share them with their employees and the children of those employees. The applications are also in the high schools and Vocational-Technical School. Somewhat unusual is that we don’t define students by age or course of study. We make awards to adults as well as graduating high school seniors, to those already pursuing a course of study, to people who are changing fields and well…you get the idea. We also give scholarships to those pursuing education that is vocational as well as the traditional academic.
Great. But before you give it away you have to have it. So where does the money come from? Many places. We occasionally hold special fundraisers, sometimes members fund a scholarship for a specific field of study and our members make donations throughout the year.
People make donations to honor or memorialize someone special, and we notify the recipient or family of this generosity. There’s no minimum (or maximum for that matter!) amount you can give. We are grateful that you are helping to build a stronger community.
And then of course there’s our tree. A beautiful Tree of Learning graces the center hallway of the Brick Township Municipal Building, with leaves, boulders and medallions that are inscribed with special messages and names. The birth of a new grandchild, the name of a favorite teacher, the name of a departed loved one …the community has been very involved in helping the tree grow.
If you would like information about making a donation or about how you can have a name added to the Tree of Learning, please call the Chamber of Commerce office.