belvedere scholarship fund

2001 Recipients

AUGUST 29, 2001 Petoskey News-Review Local students earn Belvedere Scholarships Four Charlevoix High School graduates have received college scholarships for their dedicated work at their summer jobs.

2001 This year's Belvedere Scholarship winners include (from left) Shannon Nystrom, Abby Schaperkotter, Keith Grunch, Jessica VanGuilder, Lindsey Carland and Jeff Popenhagen, Jr.

Lindsey Carland, Shannon Nystrom, Abby Schaperkotter, and Jessica VanGuilder were recently awarded Belvedere Scholarships from the Belvedere Scholarship Fund held at the Charlevoix County Community Foundation.

Lindsey has worked in the Belvedere Clubhouse and Casino for three years and will use her $2,600 scholarship award to attend Michigan State University in East Lansing where she will be a sophomore this fall. Shannon has been a member of the senior wait staff in the clubhouse and casino, and she received a $4,000 scholarship to study music and business at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

Abby, who has worked as a casino staff person and a gang leader for children's activities, will attend Grand Valley State University where she will use her $3,000 scholarship to study health sciences. Jessica, Belvedere's children's activities director and gang leader, will use her $2,400 award to continue to work on her elementary education degree at Calvin College in Grand Rapids.

The four join two other Belvedere employees who are currently receiving scholarships. Keith Grunch, a junior at Aquinas College, has worked at the golf club pro shop for the past six years, and Jeff Popenhagen, Jr., a junior at Olivet Nazarene College, has worked for the past five years on the grounds maintenance crew.

Other area students who were still receiving Belvedere Scholarships from their past employment at the club are Christopher Meredith, Jeremy Rafacz and Todd Schaperkotter. Under the Scholarship Fund guidelines, the students will continue to receive assistance with educational costs until they complete their undergraduate degrees, depending on the availability of funds.

This is the fifth year the Belvedere Club has awarded scholarships. Member of the club established a scholarship fund through the Charlevoix County Community Foundation in 1995 to benefit employees and children of employees. Since its inception, the Belvedere Scholarship Fund has awarded $67,000 in scholarships - $30,200 this year.

The Charlevoix County Community Foundation was established in 1992 by a group of local citizens as a way to build a permanent reserve of charitable capital to meet this area's needs for years to come. Since it began, the foundation's assets have grown to more than $7 million, and grants totaling more than $2.5 million have been distributed to help a number of local initiatives.

For more information about the communtiy foundation or any of the funds and grant-making activities, please call the foundation office, 536-2440.