Cliff Buchan
News Editor

As it enters its 32nd year of raising dollars to help residents of ISD 831 further their education, the job gets bigger and bigger each year for the Community Scholarship Foundation. With 2006 on the doorsteps, members of the CSF board of directors are charting plans to award $50,000 in scholarships next spring.

A big job to be sure, but one that receives major assistance each year from interest earned on endowments made to CSF. Those endowments provide valuable income used as seed for each yearís drive.

This year for the first time the CSF will benefit from the Boettcher Endowment. Earlier this year, Linwood Township residents Vernon and Fern Boettcher presented CSF with a check for $30,000 to represent the family as a perpetual endowment.

It is the single largest contribution ever made to the Community Scholarship Foundation.

The funds from the Boettchers have been invested in a certificate of deposit.

The Boettcher donation is now matched with other family endowments made to CSF. Together, they combine for nearly $90,000 in capital investment that is earning annual interest used in the yearly scholarship program.

CSF formed in 1973 and one of its original founders was Duane Rasmussen, the retired former owner and publisher of the Forest Lake Times. When Rasmussen sold the business in 1993 to ECM Publishers, Inc., he set aside $25,000 in an investment program for CSF.

Today that investment has been transferred to an account that will bear annual interest income for CSF awards. It has value today of just under $37,000.

Two other endowments also play a vital role for CSF.

In 1990, CSF received a $20,000 endowment in memory of Forest Lake resident Eugene (Fritz) Nelson. Nelson had died four years earlier and the grant was created in his memory to assist young people in pursuit of higher education.

That has also been the goal of the Forest Lake Rotary Club which has donated fund-raising proceeds to CSF. The Rotary Strive fund is now just under $35,000 and provides valuable dollars to the cause each year.

Big year ahead

The fund-raising drive in 2006 seeks a record funding total for CSF. The $50,000 goal would be an all-time high. Scholarships in excess of $40,000 were presented this past spring.

For Richard Gross, CSF board chair, the donation by area residents like the Boettchers are the kind of acts that make the long year of work worthwhile as the deserving and achieving young people get help with their school costs.

ìIt is contributions from people like Fern and Vern Boettcher that make this effort so worthwhile,î Gross said. ìIt is major contributions such as this, coupled with the hundreds of business and individual contributions that make these scholarships possible.î

The formal announcement of the latest endowment is a kick-off to the 2005-2006 fund-raising drive. The goal of $50,000 is the most ambitious yet for CSF which has awarded more than a half million dollars in scholarships since it formed 32 years ago.

CSF is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, meaning all donations are tax deductible. All funds raised in the annual drive go directly to student scholarships with no administrative expense.

Anyone wishing to make a donation can do so by sending a check to Community Scholarship Foundation, care of Student Services Department, Forest Lake High School, 6101 Scandia Trail N., Forest Lake, MN 55025.

For more information, visit www.forestlakeCSF.org.

Friend of education

Boettcher, 84, is no stranger to education and its purpose, either. Heís long been a friend of education.

A lifelong resident of the area, Boettcher graduated high school here, making the long bus ride from Linwood to Forest Lake.

Boettcher spent 29 years on the Forest Lake school board. He served nine elective terms and was on the board during two one-year appointment stints.

One of Vernon and Fern Boettcherís children was a CSF recipient following high school. Glenn Boettcher is now a vocational agriculture teacher at Stillwater High School.

The Boettcher donation followed the sale of their farm in Linwood last spring.

ìThis was our way to be able to help some youngsters,î Boettcher said last week. ìThis is a way to assist the education of some young people who need the help.î

Since leaving the school districtís service, Boettcher has been active with the Forest Lake Retired Educators Association, an affiliation that has continued many of the relationships with staff and teachers who were involved in the schools during his years on the school board.

His service also expanded beyond school areas and into Linwood Township functions where he worked for the public in numerous capacities, including many years of service on the town planning commission.

Boettcher has spent most of his life farming and also worked as a rural mail carrier for many years in the Linwood and Stacy areas.

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Forest Lake Times
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880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
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