Scholarship fund campaign kicks-off with 1940s themed ‘Scholarship Swing’
This year’s campaign drive for the Los Alamos Employees Scholarship Fund is different from past years for two reasons: Los Alamos National Security, LLC will match employee donations; and it’s kicking off with a party.
LANS will match employee donations dollar for dollar up to $250,000 during the campaign, which runs from May 1 to May 30.
The campaign begins with a ‘Scholarship Swing’ from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 1 outside the National Security Sciences Building. This 1940s themed event, sponsored by the Community Programs Office (CPO), features 1940s big band music played by the Los Alamos Big Band. The Los Alamos Big Band includes trumpet players, trombone players, percussionists, and saxophone players. Ten of the seventeen musicians in the band are Lab employees or retirees, said Debra Wersonick of Community Programs.
Copies of the Science in the National Interest: Photographs Celebrating Six Decades of Excellence book will be sold for $25. All proceeds from these sales will benefit the scholarship fund. ARAMARK Corp. will serve food at the event.
“This event is a reminder of the Manhattan Project era. The students who earn these scholarships, like the Manhattan Project pioneers, will become leaders in the scientific community and will break new scientific ground,” said Wersonick. “It is also a chance to have fun and listen to some amazing music.”
“Many of the attendees will dress in 1940s costumes,” she added.
Lab employees are scheduled to receive brochures and pledge forms at their mail stops during the first week of May. Employees can donate by completing the forms in the brochures and returning them to the Laboratory Foundation offices in Española or by visiting the foundation Web page at www.lanlfoundation.org online. Donations also can be made through payroll deduction, credit card, cash, or check.
“A scholarship is more than tuition, it’s more than books, it’s sitting a young mind down and saying, ‘I believe in you, kid. You got it.' The pride, the gratitude, these are the things that LAESF donors instill in our community’s students, and these are the things we all need most,” said Jeff Franken of the LANL Foundation, and himself a former scholarship recipient.
The LANL Foundation is a philanthropic grant-giving entity created in 1997. It supports a range of regional and community not-for-profit organizations.
For more information about the scholarship fund or the campaign drive, contact Wersonick at 7-7870 or sonic@lanl.gov or Franken at (505) 753-8890 ext. 15, or write to jfranken@lanlfoundation.org.
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