Photo by Bob Klopke Gresham High School seniors are ready to deliver pies as auctioneers Dan and Bert Huntington seek bids at the annual Gresham Scholarship Fund banquet on Saturday.
The Gresham community and friends raised over $21,000 at the annual Gresham Scholarship Fund banquet on Saturday.
“For a community just shy of 600 residents, that amount is incredible,” said Deb Schroeder Fisher, GSF board member.
Brothers Dan and Bert Huntington served as auctioneers, and another brother, Tom, was the keynote speaker. All three men graduated from Gresham High School in the 1980s.
Highlights included eight pies donated by Rick Giese and Bert Huntington selling for $2,472; $3,200 in raffle tickets for a gun donated by Lyle and Jeanie Grosskopf; and a vacation package donated by John and Diane Bauman that raised $825. Three people also matched a $1,000 donation by Ron Grosskopf for a total of $4,000. Grosskopf paid the initial $100 fee to get GSF accredited 15 years ago.
The banquet helps fund $1,750 scholarships awarded to all Gresham graduates who apply for the scholarship and have a C or better average.
The money is “a tidy sum that the students are grateful for,” said Gary Olsen, GSF treasurer, “but ideally we would like to make it a multi-year scholarship and the requires our endowment to continue to grow. I feel confident that some day we are going to be pleasantly surprised by a sizable bequest, and then our graduates will be elated!”
Bob Klopke, former principal and now president of GSF said: “For the past 15 years, I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the generosity of community, alumni and friends of GSF. Large and small donations have combined to support our vision. It’s been unbelievably gratifying.”
The GSF also awards community scholarships.
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