In just the last five years, graduating Shelby seniors have received over $365,400 in scholarship money from funds managed by The Shelby Foundation. “Few communities have their own community foundation, and even fewer see the amount of scholarships allocated to one particular school district. The resources supplied to Shelby’s graduating seniors is almost unheard of,” said Foundation Director Carrie Kemerer.

This year, two scholarship funds will cross an impressive milestone. The W.H. Moody and Layde F. Moody Scholarship and the John and Helen Yetzer Memorial Scholarship will both have awarded over $100,000 to deserving area students.

Upon her death, Mrs. Moody made a substantial, unrestricted gift to The Shelby Foundation and established a scholarship fund at the Shelby Board of Education. Shelby City Schools transferred the scholarship fund to The Shelby Foundation in 2004 to increase the investment power of the fund. Since being placed under the watchful eye of the Foundation, over $110,000 has been awarded.  Scholarship criteria focuses on good citizenship, involvement with school activities, maturity, grade point average, and financial need.

The John and Helen Yetzer Memorial Scholarship was created from a generous gift by Helen Yetzer, the youngest daughter of John and Helen, for the benefit of Shelby City Schools. Ms. Yetzer named the scholarship after her parents with the direction that the funds would be available to graduating seniors exclusively to help with college expenses. The criteria established was financial need, grade point average, and attendance of St. Mary’s elementary school. Beginning with two, $1,000 scholarships, as the fund has grown under The Shelby Foundation, so too has the amount of money awarded and number of recipients on a yearly basis. On May 17th, four more students will receive this scholarship, bringing the total amount of recipients to 36.

Director Kemerer said, “This is a perfect example of community members who wished to give back to the community they loved. Their gifts are helping past, current, and future students to decrease the financial burden of higher education.”

While each of the 25 scholarship funds has its own criteria for candidate selection, most are based on academic merit, financial need, community involvement, career choice, and extracurricular activities. Director Kemerer explained, “Scholarship recipients are determined by selection committees generally comprised of fund representatives and educators. While The Shelby Foundation oversees the processing of each scholarships, Foundation board members and staff do not take part of determining scholarship recipients.”

Scholarship funds are a beautiful way to honor or remember a loved one. For more information on establishing a scholarship fund or about The Shelby Foundation, call Carrie Kemerer at
419-342-3686 or email to carrie@theshelbyfoundation.org.