August 18, 2017 - The Center Rotary Club presented a $32,000 donation to the Roughrider Scholarship Foundation (RSF) at their August 15, 2017 meeting. The donation money was raised during the club's Fun for Funds Benefit Auction.
Prior to the check presentation, Jerry Pinkston spoke to the Rotary Club of Center to give an update on the scholarship foundation.
The Catherine Pinkston Roughrider Scholarship Foundation initially started in 1989 with limited funds. However, with the support of the community and the Rotary Club, the funds have grown to $2.4 million. Of the $2.4 million, the Rotary Club has donated $1,148,637 through its Fun for Funds Benefit auction it hosts in the spring of each year.
Pinkston gave a brief history about how the foundation started, "In 1989, the first year we started recording [the scholarships], what happened is we had this money donated when they sold the old youth center building - that's city hall today. And they sold it and they didn't know what to do with the money because the bylaws of the Roughrider said it had to be given to the Center ISD students. It's their money, their building so we honored that. When they found a checking account they had from when they ran the old youth center and nobody had ever spent, that was $38,000 more, so well we will use that too. And we started and then a couple of years later the Rotary Club started kicking in [in 1991]."
The first year the foundation gave 19 scholarships totaling $15,000. Last year the foundation gave 120 scholarships to Center graduating seniors totaling $120,000. In 2014 and 2015 each scholarship was $1,200; however, as the class sizes continue to grow, the scholarship amount was lowered back to $1,000. Over the recorded 28 year history of the RSF, the organization has given 1,771 scholarships to graduating seniors which totals $1,462,200.
Pinkston finished by saying thank you to the club on behalf of the RSF and advised them, "We have taken good care of your money. And we've retained every penny of it." Today, scholarship money given is from interest earned off of the money managed by the RSF which ensures the longevity of the program.
