It is officially the summer season! A time we all like to slow down, take everything a little less seriously. Au contraire! Here at the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, it is scholarship time. A very busy season and we take the process very seriously. Over the next few months, staff and volunteers will pour over each one of the student scholarship applications, matching the student’s profile with the criteria of one of the 214 different scholarship funds administered by the Foundation.

 

Today, we are pleased to highlight one of the scholarship funds and the fine community minded organization that established the fund.

 

In 1982, when the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation (CRCF) had only been in existence for four years, the Zonta Club of Jamestown, both as a vote of support and as a wise investment for the organization’s future, established a CRCF scholarship fund. Zonta is a worldwide service organization of executives in business and the professions working together to advance the status of women. 

 

In 1993, in memory of an outstanding member of the organization, the fund’s name was changed to honor a revered Zonta Club member, Anne H. Crowe. In memoriam to Anne, The Anne H. Crowe Zonta Club Scholarship Fund criterion mirrors her personal interest: To assist a female with a high school diploma or G.E.D. who is furthering her education to improve her career opportunities after an absence from school. She must have shown academic achievement and financial need.

 

After reflecting on this criterion, it leads to an interesting story tucked away in the Zonta file at the Foundation’s office. Long before the Foundation was in existence, the Zonta Club administered their own scholarship program through the Club’s operating budget. Doris W. Mitchell was one of those early scholarship recipients.

 

Doris was born in Jamestown and attended Jamestown High School. She planned on entering the workplace after high school. One day, Guidance Counselor, Helen Overs, spoke with her, telling her that she really had the ability to go on to college. She liked the idea after she thought about it; and, after graduation in 1945, she enrolled at Alfred University Extension (Jamestown Community College’s predecessor). Doris Mitchell was a recipient of one of the many scholarships the Zonta Club of Jamestown has given to deserving, young women through the years. Mrs. Mitchell believed that Miss Overs and the Zonta Club had changed her life for the better. Mrs. Mitchell had always wanted to pay back the scholarship money to the fund which had provided it. 

 

When she died in January of 1997, the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation was named a beneficiary. The gift was designated for the Anne H. Crowe Zonta Scholarship Fund.

 

During this scholarship season, the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation continues to make a difference in someone’s life by making matches like the Zonta Club of Jamestown and Doris W. Mitchell. Your donation to the Anne H. Crowe Zonta Scholarship Fund, or any of the other 213 funds held by the Community Foundation is always gratefully accepted either online (www.crcfonline.org) or at 418 Spring Street, Jamestown, NY.