Changing the Community by Changing Lives Scholarship Fund

“We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible.”

~ President Barack Obama

The Genesee County Young Democrats (GCYD) are working with Blue Tiger Democrats, the charitable wing of the Michigan Democratic Party, to fund the Changing the Community by Changing Lives Scholarship Fund (CCCL), an endowed scholarship to provide disadvantaged, but talented high school seniors in Genesee County the opportunity to start college.

We Michiganders know how to live through difficult times. We have seen them before and we will see them again. However, how can we ever repair our community if talented students are unable to get the education that they have been working towards for twelve years?

Our children are told from kindergarten till they graduate that if they work hard enough they will get ahead. This is simply not always the case.

Over 20,000 Genesee County students are enrolled in the free lunch program. If these students do not have lunch money, how can we expect them to have money for college tuition? By the time they pay back all their student loans, now with higher interest rates, they are too poor to be anywhere but behind. That’s unfair and it jeopardizes the American Dream.

One in six Genesee County students dropped out of school in 2007. Rather than risk the financial burden of a college education, many students opt out in order to supplement their family income with their own earnings. At a time of economic crisis, this threat to the national resource of knowledge is only increasing, and something must be done now.

Help the GCYD raise funds to support local scholars make it to college by joining us for our kickoff event at Luigi’s Pizzeria on Saturday, March 28th from 1pm-4pm. General attendance is $25 at the door for pizza and salad bar. $6.75 covers costs for the event; the rest goes toward the scholarship fund. Additional donations are welcome. Contributions are non-deductible.

Luigi’s Pizzeria

2132 Davison Rd.

Flint, MI

If you need directions or have any questions call (810) 625-0741.

The GCYD would like to thank the following sponsors for all of their support thus far:

Founding Sponsors:

Senator Deborah Cherry

Representative Rick Hammel

former-Representative Ted Hammon

Gold Sponsors:

Lt. Governor John Cherry

Mrs. Pam Farris

Mr. Keith Flynn

Congressman Dale Kildee

Silver Sponsors:

Chairman Jack Minore, Genesee County Democratic Party

Mrs. Catherine Frederick.