Announcements
Rising Star Scholarship Breakdown
First off, congratulations to Kristin Mahan, who was the 2019 Rising Star awardee!
This was the second year of the Rising Star Scholarship and we managed to raise more than twice the amount that was raised in the first year. Below is a breakdown of fundraising and donations.
2019 Rising Star Scholarship
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Donations | $1,200.00 |
| Dogs of Summer Shirt Sale | $310.00 |
| FUNdraising (Raffle, Swag, Jello Shots) | $1,637.00 |
| Reimburse (Stickers, Koozie, Band, etc) | -$476.00 |
| Total | $2,671.00 |
| 2019 Scholarship Award | $1,500.00 |
| 2020 Scholarship Fund | $1,171.00 |
The first year, we managed to award two $500.00 awards, and this year we were able to award one $1,500.00 award. We thought that being able to give a larger amount to one player would have more of an impact than lesser amounts to more players; but we also didn't think that we would raise this much money going into the year.
We chose not to increase the award for 2019, despite raising more money, because we want to ensure that we can either grow the award or at least keep it the same year after year.
We also did not announce or ask for donations for the scholarship, but were approached by some very giving people who we owe a lot of thanks to, Michelle Wu, Paul Webb, Matty Brier and Sticky. Huge thanks to everyone on the FUNd committee for organizing the RIPUL Mixer at the beginning of the year to sell some RIPUL swag, to Jay and Lily Talerman for donating all proceeds of the Dogs of Summer shirts, and for Amy Goldblatt for selling more jello shots than there have been players in RIPUL. And big thanks to Justine Bucci, Chris Bloom, and Evan Kirby for being part of the selection committee.
This year applications were open to undergrad and graduate students because we were hoping to cast a larger net and welcome and include as many RIPUL players as possible. Despite that, we still only ended up with 13 applicants, which is down from 18 the year before. We are hoping to do a better job reaching out to college students next year so that more players can apply, and may limit it to only undergraduate students, but that is something we will figure out going into next summer.
2020 Rising Star Scholarship and Funds
While our first goal will always be to award a spirited player with a scholarship for college, we will also be looking at other ways to give back to the community. Some ideas have been to sponsor a local college team for a tournament bid, help sponsor a local youth team,and provide some help to the youth clinics run by the league, and we are always open to suggestions!
If you would like to become involved with the scholarship, have any questions/comments, want to give suggestions for next year, or have other fundraising ideas, please reach out at ripulscholarship@gmail.com