The primary goal of Tony Fry, who has been the driving force behind first Rent-a-Youth and then Ray’s Place, has always been to keep kids in school for as long as possible.
While teenagers are performing odd jobs around town with Rent-a-Youth, they are also being mentored by folks who can tell them first-hand about the benefit of finishing high school and going on to some form of post-secondary education.
And with Ray’s Place (named after Rent-a-Youth, of course), high school students are able to drop in, study together, use the centre’s computers for homework and again be in the presence of an adult able to counsel them on the benefits of being educated.
This week, Ray’s Place board members Fry and Laurie Copeland announced that the organization will now take a huge step towards completing that original goal.
Through a generous donation from a community member, Ray’s Place will offer its first scholarship for the start of the 2011/2012 school year. The award will be available to a student living in Clearview Township and entering first year college or university in Canada, who is or will be a graduate from a high school in Simcoe County.
The scholarship has a potential value of $15,000 or $20,000, payable over a three or four year course of study at $5,000 a year.
Criteria for the award includes a 75% average in Grade 12, a demonstrated financial need, a recognized initiative in funding their own education, and leadership qualities. The payment will be made yearly, contingent on the recipient maintaining an overall academic average of 65% in year one, 70% in year two and 75% in year three.
“This is great news,” said Fry, who preaches the need for an “LDD,” as he calls it – a license, diploma or degree – to make a living in these times. “It’s what we’ve been working toward since we started this thing.”
But Ray’s Place isn’t stopping yet. While this scholarship will take a student through the next four years and then start again with an other one in perpetuity, Fry’s hope is that there might be more donors out there. “I need three more,” he said. That way, the scholarships could role over year in and out, and a student could be heading off to post-secondary studies with the help of Ray’s Place every September.
The organization will soon have a charitable number, if that could entice donors.
But really, Fry is hoping that someone out there might be motivated by what might be the greatest feeling of all – the fact that you will be responsible for the education of others.
All money in the scholarship fund will be managed externally by TD investment advisor John Van Der Marl.
Those interested in applying for the first scholarship can pick up applications at Ray’s Place (just down Caroline Street West from Cardboard Castles) and should make note that the deadline for completed application is January 31, 2012.
Fry, Copeland and the rest of the board members of Ray’s Place are grateful to Ted and Marylou Morgan for donating the funds for the first scholarship.