Community Foundation hosts thank-you reception for scholarship reviewers

1,800 scholarship applications were reviewed this year

FORT MYERS, Fla. (April 24, 2017) – The Southwest Florida Community Foundation recently hosted 50 of its scholarship reviewers at a thank-you reception on April 20. Maria Valladares, a student of Nova Southeastern read a poem she wrote and had published thanking the Foundation’s donors.

This year, the Foundation received the volunteer efforts of 82 people in the community to review 1,800 scholarship applications and essays. There were 88 scholarship funds available, 64 of which were in the online competitive process, for local high school, undergraduate and graduate students from Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties.

More than 130 recipients will receive these scholarship awards totaling more than $700,000.

The Southwest Florida Community Foundation, founded in 1976, cultivates regional change for the common good through collective leadership, social innovation and philanthropy to address the evolving community needs in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties. It partners with individuals, families and corporations who have created more than 400 philanthropic funds. Thanks to them, the Foundation invested $5 million in grants and programs to the community last year. With assets of $93 million, it has provided more than $67 million in grants and scholarships to the communities it serves since inception. The Community Foundation is the backbone organization for the regional FutureMakers Coalition and Lee County’s Sustainability Plan.

Currently, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation’s regional headquarters are located off College Parkway in South Fort Myers, with satellite offices located on Sanibel Island, in LaBelle (Hendry County) and downtown Fort Myers. For more information, call 239-274-5900 or visit www.floridacommunity.com.