2014 Summary - Mel douglass fund

Scholarships
  • Olivia Belechak won the $6,000 Mel Douglass Scholarship for her community service, including starting a mentoring club at Oakland Catholic and successfully preparing a grant proposal that earned $10,000 for the club. Her volunteering also impacted her church and other initiatives at Oakland Catholic.  Olivia is now a freshman at James Madison University in Virginia, where her brother Peter (the 2013 Mel Douglass Scholarship winner) is a sophomore.
  • Greta Bould, Shannon Edgar, Katie Manges, Ben March, Cecily Milligan, and Kyle Olander earned $500 honorable mention scholarships.
  • After seven years, your contributions have supported 37 Edgewood students (seven Mel Douglass Scholarship winners plus 30 honorable mention winners) who enrolled in 26 colleges and universities located in 11 states plus Washington DC.

Contributions
  • Contributions to the fund increased by 24% over 2013.  Contributions ranged up to $5,115.
  •  A new high of 96 contributors, 22% more than 2013, donated to the fund.  Since 2008, 148 individuals, families, or organizations have contributed.  We are proud to celebrate and recognize those who have honored Mel over the years, and we have listed you on the next page.
  • The annual Mel Douglass Memorial Golf event on September 27 achieved new highs in sponsors and fund contributions.  Gregg Bowers and Nick Kefalos deserve recognition and tremendous thanks for their leadership of this event every year.  Thanks, guys!
  • Consistent with previous practice, 100% of your contributions were directed to current or future scholarships.  All administrative expenses (tax filings, web design, graphics, postage, etc.) are personally paid by our Board of Directors.

Operations
  • 2014 was the first full year of operation for our website, meldouglassfund.org.  We refreshed the site periodically as events took place.  Check out 2014 photos from both the scholarship ceremony and the golf event!  We would really appreciate photos of Mel or other items you might like to submit for potential inclusion.  Please direct all submissions to Dallas Frey at freydk@gmail.com or by mail at 193 West Hutchinson Avenue, Edgewood PA, 15218.  We return all photos and other materials once they have been posted to the site.   
  • As we have in the past, we aligned all activities to continue to build a fund that is self-sustaining in perpetuity to make sure Mel’s tremendous legacy endures and benefits young people in Edgewood.  We balanced short-term and long-term objectives again in 2014:
  • Short-term:  We financially supported the scholarships awarded and met all of our other obligations to operate the fund.
  • Long-term:  We set aside a portion of your contributions to continue building a sustaining fund.  For the seventh straight year, we increased the December 31 balance in the fund.