2015 Summary - Mel douglass fund

Scholarships
  • Caroline Evashavick won the $6,000 Mel Douglass Scholarship for her community service, which included teaming with Oakland Catholic faculty to plan student service projects.  She also represented Oakland Catholic on a project in Guatemala and later raised funds to bring a Guatemalan boy to Pittsburgh for medical treatment to address a vision issue.  Caroline is now a freshman at George Washington University.
  • Patrick Bush, Isabelle Glassmith, and Katie Kush earned $500 honorable mention scholarships.
  • Patrick’s award made the Bush family the first to earn four scholarships.  Siblings Emily (2008), J.J. (2011), and Christopher (2013) previously earned honorable mention scholarships.  
  • After eight years, your contributions have supported 41 Edgewood students (eight Mel Douglass Scholarship winners plus 33 honorable mention winners) who enrolled in 29 colleges and universities located in 13 states plus Washington DC.


Contributions
  • As it has every year, your generosity resulted in an increase in general contributions over the previous year.  Thank you so much!  Contributions ranged up to $5,030.
  • Our donor base continues to be a healthy mix of long time and new contributors.  Since 2008, over 150 individuals, families, or organizations have contributed.  We are proud to celebrate and recognize all who have honored Mel over the years, and we have listed you on the back of this page.
  • The annual Mel Douglass Memorial Golf event on August 15 was another success and a memorable day of fellowship.  Gregg Bowers and Nick Kefalos once again deserve recognition and tremendous thanks for their leadership of this event.  Thanks as always, 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
  • We continued to grow our internet presence in 2015 on our website, meldouglassfund.org.  We refreshed the site periodically as events took place.  Check out photos from both the May 3rd scholarship ceremony and the August 15th golf event!  We would really appreciate photos of Mel or any 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 2015:
    • 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 eighth straight year, we increased the December 31 balance in the fund.