OLIVESBURG — Steve Willeke and Mary Stimpert care about education and helping students expand their education after high school.
When Willeke retired as the superintendent of Crestview School District in 2008, he and Stimpert began creating the Crestview Educational Foundation to provide scholarships for graduating Crestview students and grants for the school district’s educators.
“Really, our goal is to be another resource — financial — for both students who are graduating and for teachers at Crestview,” Willeke, president and co-founder of the foundation said.
CEF held its first board meeting in June of 2010 and continues to provide scholarships using money donated from Crestview alumni and others connected to the school district. The board of trustees is comprised of alumni of the school district including educators, parents of children attending Crestview schools, a banker and a lawyer.
Each of the 12 board members maintains an important role in keeping the foundation a success, Stimpert said.
“Our community really has a sense of giving back, from all walks of life,” said Stimpert, vice president of CEF. “I think that’s really a motivator of how our organization got started.”
Starting in 2011, the organization was able to give away four one-time scholarships to graduating seniors of $400-$500 each, Willeke said.
This spring, the foundation will award eight students with scholarships totaling $4,750. Willeke said all donations given to the foundation are used on student scholarships and teacher’s grants. Over the span of its six-year existence, CEF has awarded $18,500 in scholarship and grant money.
The 501 (C)(3) non-profit, which has survived mostly by word-of-mouth marketing, is looking to connect with the Richland County community — specifically through social media — in hopes of collecting more donations to return to Crestview education.
“As educators, we have a passion for education,” said Willeke acknowledging the more than 60 years of educating background between Simpert and himself, “For good or bad, it seems everyone needs a degree these days to have a decent job.”
The trustees, Willeke said, selectively give scholarships, after an application process. A 2.75 GPA is required to be awarded the scholarship, and Willeke said the board likes to see applicants who participate in extracurricular activities such as sports, church programs and/or volunteer work and jobs.
Five of the eight scholarships given last year were given in honor of the donator’s family. Willeke said the families have a say in criteria for earning the scholarship.
Educators seeking grant money must submit an application by Oct. 1 so teachers can have the grant at the begging of the fall to begin their projects. It has to be a project, which is academically oriented, Willeke said.
“They’ll have the money by the end of October to spend the money on materials or contact a speaker —whatever they want to use the money for,” he added.
Stimpert said each year, the foundation attempts to award one grant per level of education: elementary, middle school and high school.
Because the CEF gets its money solely through donations, Willeke said they are could only provide so many scholarships with the current amount of money they have collected.
“We’ve been lucky,” Willeke said. “We’ve only been in business for six years, and I think our current financial balance is over $100,000. We nee to get the word out (about CEF) because we know there are a lot of alumni in the area. We are trying to get more donors. Thankfully we’ve had some wealthy donors come forward to help us.
“The more we can receive, the more we can give.”
