Just before the Christmas holiday, local community outreach nonprofit Faith, Hope and Charity (FHC) Recycle Store Inc. provided some financial assurance to several local students who are either already enrolled in college or soon will be after graduating from Gilmer High School (GHS).
The December scholarship awards presented at the nonprofit’s Recycle Store totaled $41,000 split between 49 students, noted FHC Scholarship committee chairman Paul Compton. The first round of scholarship checks for the 2020-21 college year were given in October, he added.
“They are recurring scholarships for up to four years including summer school, and these were the awards for the spring semester,” Compton said.
Students who receive the scholarships are at different stages in their college paths with some just starting, some about to finish and others somewhere in between. It’s hoped that providing assistance to college students from Gilmer County may eventually contribute to a stronger workforce here, Compton noted.
“We are primarily involved in supporting Gilmer County folks. We’re looking to find (students) we think will succeed in college, as well as those who will get the kind of degrees to where they might come back here,” he added. “We don’t provide scholarships for advanced degrees, which is anything that takes over four years. Some will stay (enrolled) longer than others and we do have some students who drop out. They try college and figure out it’s not for them.”
Each scholarship applicant would normally be interviewed in person, but, for the foreseeable future, they will instead submit printed applications that include essay questions.
“Because of the virus, we had to stop doing interviews. On our application forms (available at FHCRecycle.org) we ask them to tell us about themselves and their aspirations, leadership qualities and those sorts of things,” Compton said.
“We partner with the Gilmer Education Foundation for new, incoming students just graduating from GHS. They provide an application that the students fill out. We review them and decide who to award the scholarships to. The high school normally has its big award ceremony in May, which didn’t happen last year. We hope this year will be a little different and we can award scholarships at that ceremony. That would give us more visibility in the community to people who may not realize we are here and that we give scholarships,” he added.
The scholarship funds are generated by sales made at the Recycle Store. The primary fundraising source for all of FHC’s community outreach programs, the store has experienced setbacks this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Compton noted.
“The store was closed for two full months, so the board requested we cut back on the scholarship amounts by 15 percent. They are now $850 (per semester),” he noted.
The store reopened in May with new hours and safety precautions including limiting the amount of incoming item donations and only allowing a certain number of shoppers in the building at a time. It temporarily closed again late last month, but had reopened with the same precautions in place as of Jan. 6.
“We have our fingers crossed. We’ve said a bunch of prayers and are still saying prayers that the good Lord will bless us in the coming year so we can get back to normal and get the store back open full time with full shopper participation,” Compton said.