Wellsville Rotary Club Scholarships to be Managed by ACAF
With the creation of a new endowment fund the Wellsville Rotary Club Scholarships will now be managed by the Allegany County Area Foundation to take advantage of the services that a community foundation can offer. Since 1990 the Allegany County Area Foundation has awarded over 2.6 million in scholarship awards to Allegany County area students.
The Wellsville Rotary Club’s scholarship fund was originally created back in the 1930’s. It was set up to award scholarships as loans to graduating seniors going on to college. The first such scholarship grant, of which there is a record for, was awarded in 1941. For about the next 25 years the policy was to award a mixture of loans and outright grants. During that period the Rotary Student Loan Committee dispersed about $22,000 to about 50 students. Then in the 1960’s a policy of scholarship grants only was adopted and continued until the present day with about $116,000 being awarded to 233 students.
Various Rotarians have administered the fund over the years. Mr. Frank Jensen was chairman of the Scholarship Committee from 1970 until 1990 and was succeeded in the position for 25 years to date by Art Van Tyne.
Current seniors from the Wellsville High School who are planning to attend either a two or four year college are eligible to apply for these scholarships. Applicants may now apply online for the Wellsville Rotary Club Scholarships for the 2016-2017 school year through the Allegany County Area Foundation at: www.alleganycountyareafoundation.dollars for scholars.org. The deadline for all ACAF applications is April 1, 2016. For more information about this scholarship or others managed by the ACAF, please call Denis Dahlgren at 585-808-8444.
In the attached picture (L to R): Marc Woltag, President of the Wellsville Rotary Club and Denis Dahlgren, Executive Director of the Allegany County Area Foundation.