The president of a local charitable organization is looking to build on a successful inaugural year.
On Thursday evening, 17 recent graduates of Jacksonville High School and Routt High School, who are currently attending either Illinois College, MacMurray College or Lincoln Land Community College, received scholarship grants.
Chuck Sheaff says those scholarships came from Jacksonville Promise, a group composed of volunteers aimed at raising money for local graduates attending local colleges.
“In the first year we raised $40,000 and were able to give a $2,000 scholarship to everyone who applied and qualified. We are hoping to improve the effort next year as more and more people hear about the program and we are able to get more and more people to donate to the program,” says Sheaff.
Sheaff described last night’s presentation as “fantastic.”
“We were really very pleased by it. We had a full room with the presidents of the three colleges, the mayor of the town and probably 100 people present. Many of those people were our donors. It was a very good feeling,” says Sheaff.
Sheaff looks forward to the annual Jacksonville Promise fundraiser in January and the Pancake Breakfast at Applebee’s in November.
Check out the full list of scholarship recipients below.
