Start up story of the Foundation and the Class of 1967 Scholarship

We began to organize the Foundation in August of 2002 as part of our 35^th Year Class Reunion. A presentation was made and a vote taken to form the Foundation. We didn’t have a name at that point. We had a small auction and asked for contributions. We initially raised about $1400. A newsletter was sent out in the fall to all classmates to notify them of what we were doing and asked for more contributions. This raised our total contributions to slightly over $3000.

A slate of 5 officers was drafted, voted upon and elected before year-end. Two of our board members are prominent local residents, Nancy Snead Chappell and Gene Hart. One of our members, David Arthur, who has recently moved back to Lunenburg County, was familiar with constitutions and bylaws so therefore drafted ours. This was really a great gift to see come together. After 3 occasions we finally filed the necessary papers for the state of Virginia to grant us our charter. It took about 1 1/2 years working with the IRS to receive our ruling as a charitable organization (501(c)(3)).

Early on we contacted the principal at Central, C. B. Haskins, to let him know what we were doing and to get his support. We also contacted Arvin Bell, head of the guidance office. Both of these individuals were instrumental with us getting started. We had a group of 10 classmates develop our criteria that the guidance office would use to select the individual to receive our scholarship.

Tank Wilson at Benchmark Community Bank help set up our account at no charge since we were non profit.

We were able in the spring of 2003 notify Central that we would like to offer a $300 scholarship. This may have been a small dollar amount but it represented quite a step forward and a promise of things to come.

Each year we put out a newsletter to let our classmates know what is happening regarding the Foundation, ask for annual contributions and notify them who is receiving our scholarship awards. We have been raising between $2000 and $3000 a year. Our scholarships have grown from $300 in 2003 to $500 in 2004, $700 in 2005, $1000 in 2006 and $1250 in 2007. We are proud of this accomplishment.

We have invested most of our funds in the Vanguard Group’s Windsor Mutual Fund. This mutual fund was started in 1958 and is primarily into major caps. It’s track record over 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years and inception is 14.57%, 11.71%, 8.56%, 9.47% and 12.54% respectfully.

We lost a dear classmate in the fall of 2005. We realized we could recognize this individual in a small way by offering our scholarship in his memory. We have 4 other classmates that we will so recognize. We also would like to honor some of our teachers as well. We are currently working on how to select these individuals.

We have now reached the point that we want to invite other classes to join in our efforts. Hence, we have got to get the word out to these classes and help them get started. Our long term goal for the Class of 1967 is to reach an endowment fund of $100,000 and for every Central class after 10 years from graduation to establish an endowment fund in their name. We have the potential to have a profound and lasting impact on graduating seniors at Central.

In closing we are gratefull for the strong education we received from all our teachers – Elementary, Middle School and High School - in Lunenburg County. We not only want to help graduating seniors but also want to honor and pay tribute to our teachers. We have been blessed by their dedication.

In Gratitude,

The Class of 1967