What a party! Our Stumptown Scholars Bollywood Block Party took over a city block in the Laurelhurst neighborhood over the Labor Day weekend. 100 plus people danced into the evening to the sounds of DJ Prashant. Prashant is the Pacific Northwest’s premier Bollywood DJ (@dreamprashant). Great music, dancing, delightful food provided by friends/neighbors and words of inspiration from our Stumptown Scholars team.
The event raised $7000! Special thanks to the William and Emmy Lawrance fund of the Oregon Community Foundation for a generous matching grant. This fund is managed by William Lawrance’s daughter Katherine. Thank you to the Lawrance family for helping to make this magical evening a huge success. And heartfelt thanks to the many friends, neighbors and businesses who donated. Business contributions include Tom Wildman (Knowing Technologies), James Everitt (Bryson Hagen) and Tammy Going (Windermere). We could not have done it without all of you.
Stumptown board members Kaarin Smith and her husband Van, Michael Hanna and Mary Ruth Hanna organized and hosted this event. Thank you to our board members for your generous contribution of time and resources.
We also heard some word of inspiration from our most recent scholarship recipient. Paolo Friese graduated from Franklin High in June 2023. Paolo earned a $10,000 scholarship. He told the crowd how this scholarship will make it possible for him to afford on campus housing. He also described how the scholarship will mean a lot less student debt when he graduates from University of Oregon. Paolo’s mom was also there to celebrate with us. In addition to Paolo, we got to see Andrew Vo Nguyen. Andrew graduated from McDaniel High in 2019. He is attending U of O with an $8000 scholarship from Stumptown Scholars.
So grateful to everyone who made this event a success. Stumptown Scholars provides significant scholarships to deserving local students. We are building a community-based scholarship program funded by neighbors, local businesses and local foundations.