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Jayme Isaac Vigil of Escalante High School spoke at the Los Alamos Employees' Scholarship Fund awards ceremony held recently in Santa Fe. Vigil received an Endowed Leadership Fund scholarship. The fund was created in 2000 by former Laboratory Director John Browne and his wife, Marti, to provide scholarship opportunities for Northern New Mexico students with significant financial need. These students also have demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities and achievements in their homes, schools and communities.

Los Alamos Employees' Scholarship Fund drive campaign begins

Program now in sixth year

The sixth Los Alamos Employees' Scholarship Fund campaign is scheduled to begin this week.

The Los Alamos Employees' Scholarship Fund allows University of California Laboratory employees and subcontract personnel to donate to a fund that awards college scholarships to Northern New Mexico area students. Lab workers have until May 31 to return completed forms to the nonprofit Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation in Santa Fe. Remittance envelopes will be included with pledge forms, which are being mailed to Laboratory workers at their mail stops and to retirees at their homes.

The goal of this year's fundraising campaign is $200,000.

Through payroll deduction, employees may donate between $1 and $10 or more each paycheck, and contributions to the scholarship fund are tax deductible. The $1-to-$10-per-pay-period range of suggested donations was developed to make it easier for all Lab workers to participate, said Debbi Wersonick of the Community Relations (CRO) Office, coordinator of employee and corporate giving programs.

Employees also can make a one-time donation. Personal checks can be written to the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation.

Wersonick said the Lab is making a direct appeal to the work force at various technical areas. From 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday this month, volunteers will be at the Otowi Building at Technical Area 3. During those times, Lab workers can turn in completed pledge cards and learn more about the scholarship fund and the foundation.

Profiles of several of this year's scholarship recipients also will be on display in the Otowi Building.

Volunteers also are at TA-55 from noon to 1 p.m. every Wednesday in May, she added.

"Employees at Los Alamos continue to demonstrate their willingness to invest in the future of Northern New Mexico and the Laboratory by contributing to this scholarship fund, and I am confident that this year will be no exception," Bob Romero of Nuclear Materials Technology Division (NMT) Office and co-chair of the Los Alamos Employees' Scholarship Fund Advisory Board said.

Suzanne Johnston, left of Weapon Systems Engineering (ESA-WSE), talks with Rafiu Mustapha of Santa Fe Community College at the April 26 awards ceremony. Mustapha, a computer graphics major, received the Allan Johnston Scholarship named after the former Business Operations (BUS) Division leader. Allan Johnston also previously was president of the Laboratory Foundation's board of directors and a longtime supporter of education. Photos by LeRoy N. Sanchez, Public Affairs

Wersonick said Laboratory personnel who pledge or make a donation to the scholarship fund will receive a Laboratory badge holder and lanyard.

Since the program's inception, University of California Laboratory employees and subcontract personnel contributed more than $585,000 in donations or pledges to the Los Alamos Employees' Scholarship Fund giving campaign. And 206 high school seniors or college undergraduates have received scholarships through the fund.

Wersonick noted that the foundation also is sponsoring a bowlathon to raise funds for the scholarship. The bowlathon begins at 10 a.m., May 31, at Big Rock Bowl in Espanola. Five-person teams are being assembled; the cost is $250 a team or $50 per bowler.

The scholarship fund is managed by the Laboratory and the foundation.

The Laboratory Foundation is a philanthropic grant-giving entity for the Lab created in 1997. It supports a range of regional and community not-for-profit organizations.

For more information on the scholarship fund, write to Tony Fox of the Laboratory Foundation at tfox@lanlfoundation.org by electronic mail.

-- Steve Sandoval

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