Opportunities For Education Dinner Attendees Topped Last Year’s Giving

The 2012 Opportunities for Education scholarship dinner, featuring keynote speaker Dewey Bozella, was the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Foundation’s most successful fundraising event to date, generating $59,247.

"I can say with confidence that this year's Opportunities for Education scholarship fund-raising dinner was our best yet," KVCC Director of Development Stephen Doherty said.

A total of 386 people attended the April 25 dinner. Contributions continue to trickle in from donors who could not attend this year’s event.

This is the only scholarship fund-raising event of the year for the college. “The scholarship is one of this nation’s oldest examples of collaboration and partnership,” Doherty said. “Students who seek this assistance show their appreciation with outstanding performance in the classroom, the lab and in the workplace. Those who provide this assistance demonstrate the wisdom of investing in the community’s most important resource - our people.”

The Foundation has hosted the OFE dinner for eight years. Donations to the scholarship fund have increased steadily for the last six years. In all, the event has raised a total of $273,593 for student scholarships.

Last year, the college processed 18,603 requests for financial aid, a 6.1 percent increase over the 2010 requests, but only half of those students received financial aid.

Bozella, the keynote speaker at the fundraising dinner event, shared his story of being imprisoned for a murder he did not commit. In addition to earning many academic certificates and college degrees while in prison, Bozella trained as a boxer. He fulfilled a dream on in October 2011 when he boxed against and defeated Larry Hopkins at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The Kalamazoo Valley Community College Foundation serves as an independent 501c3 charitable organization for support and benefit of Kalamazoo Valley Community College, its students, faculty, staff, and affiliated entities.

Established in 1980, the Foundation accepts and administers both unrestricted contributions and those designated for specific purposes, such as student scholarships, the purchase of necessary equipment to improve instruction, and construction of new facilities.

Plans are already underway for a May 2013 OFE dinner. Watch for details in the fall. For more information contact Stephen Doherty, sdoherty@kvcc.edu or 269.488.4442.