Masonic Lodge offers scholarship
Students at Warren County High School have yet another way to help cover the high cost of furthering their education.
All students are welcome to apply for the McMinnville Masonic Lodge Scholarship. This is the third year the lodge has made the $1,000 award available to local students. Money for the scholarship is raised during an annual basketball tournament. The scholarship is awarded at the end of the school year during scholarship day.
Students can apply by visiting the senior guidance counselor at Warren County High. Applications require students to discuss their reason for applying, as well as their post-graduation plans. After all applications are collected, a committee of lodge members and local business people review the applications. Lodge president David Pendergraph said, “We try to get the best outlook on which student is most deserving.”
The lodge, according to Pendergraph and first vice president Orville Cole, is primarily a charitable organization and the yearly basketball tournament is organized as a way to raise money and to provide the scholarship. Pendergraph said the goal of the tournament and the scholarship “is to put money out into the community, so the community can benefit as well as the lodge.”
Cole said all of the money raised goes to the scholarship or to charity. “That’s all we get out of it, the enjoyment of fellowship with the community.”
Pendergraph said the seventh- and eighth-grade tournament grows each year. “This year we had 17 teams. Many of them call us to see if we have openings. They look forward to coming back each year to play.”
Warren County teams get the first chance to participate and then the tournament is opened to teams in neighboring counties.