Patricia Foley Karl Scholarship Funds The PFK Scholarship Funds were established in 2007 upon the retirement of the first Executive Director of LFDEF, Inc. and the LFDCS’ founder. The intent of both the endowment fund and the direct scholarship fund is to support opportunities for LFDCS graduates accepted for admission at private secondary schools. PFK Scholarship Endowment Fund The year, the PFK Scholarship Endowment Fund raised $9,868, which was a strong performance as compared to the year before, where no contributions were collected. The Endowment Fund is invested at Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF) where contributions and investments help it to grow annually with an initial goal of raising in ten years $1,000,000. During the past year, the fund grew to $297,005.13 through June 30, 2014. The PFK Scholarship Committee recognized that establishing an endowment would provide for future generations of students. LFDCS has a sizable percentage of each current graduating class earning acceptances at private independent and private religious-based schools where the gap in financial aid to tuition was too great for parents. It became evident that we needed to raise scholarship dollars for today as well as for tomorrow. PFK Direct Scholarship Fund The PFK Direct Scholarship Fund raised scholarship dollars for the graduating Class of 2014 in many different ways—among them the School Site Council sold raffle tickets for a hand-made picnic table and sponsored a Yankee Candle fundraiser which earned $16,793. During the past year the Parent Liaison took the leadership role for these efforts and the Frank Eccles Scholarship fund (student contributions on sports jersey days/jeans days). With great fan interest in area teams—Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins—these days were fun and helped raise a total of $7,355. Holiday donations added $6,375 to this year’s total, and the “Meet Our Scholars…Who Reach for the Stars” annual fundraiser brought into the scholarship fund $40,004. This event, held under the tent at The Lanam Club in Andover and co-chaired by LFDEF, Inc. board members, Pati Fernandez and Kretcha Roldan, drew 130 guests to a festive event on a perfect May evening. The event sought sponsors to help underwrite the cost of the evening and create broader awareness in the business community. Conlon Products, Juliet and Fred Nagle, RM Technologies, Shaheen Brothers, Paul and Anna Grace Holloway and a number of small local businesses helped make event sponsorship a success. Students from the Class of 2014 were on hand to greet guests, as student speakers shared their stories of academic success and perseverance. This preceded bidding on more than 40 silent and live auction items. New scholarships were created in the past year by individual donors who contributed significantly large gifts totaling $35,500. The year-long work of the scholarship committee is celebrated each graduation. This year’s very successful Class of 2014 earned approximately $1.3 million (four year totals) of financial aid and scholarships. 23
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