United Church on the Green was filled to capacity Saturday for the 2006 Awards Ceremony of the New Haven Scholarship Fund. Started in 1959, with a corpus of $100, donated by a New Haven schoolteacher, the group has succeeded in granting scholarships that total $6 million.
Jim Barber (pictured), well-known SCSU field and track coach and president of the organization, officiated. Hon. William Dyson and Dr. Reginald Mayo, superintendent of schools, inspired the students from Co-Op, High School in the Community, Hill Regional Career, Hyde Leadership, Hillhouse, Metropolitan Business, Riverside Academy and Wilbur Cross high schools. Students from Eli Whitney were the only suburban grantees; the school was formerly located in New Haven, from which many of its students are in attendance. Families and friends photographically memorialized the young prodigies and cheered each of them. Lonnie Garris, Jr. , principal of Hillhouse, sat as proud witness and supporter of the achievements of his students. Dyson implored the youngsters to remember that the occasion was “the first day of the rest of your lives” by taking advantage of every moment and every contact available to them. Jim Barber recounted his experience with the fund, noting that its generosity of $62.50, for text books, allowed him to remain in college. Mayo noted that the students of the New Haven public schools had attracted over $5 million in scholarship grants, a $2 million increase over the previous year.
Joe Binkoski, Peter Stolzman, Cassandra Floyd and Lindy Lee Gold, members of the board, greeted and ushered the crowd. Rocco Orlando, longtime NHSF president and educational mentor, and his wife Rae (pictured with Rocco) beamed from the front row. The event was so meaningful to them that she endured her wheelchair transport and her casted broken leg to be there!
With the checks distributed and refreshments consumed, the youngsters emerged outside to the Festival of Arts and Ideas and considered their own and all of their wonderful possibilities. It is hoped that the 47th year of the New Haven Scholarship Fund is just a new beginning, too — ¬¶..clearly the work is “ALL FOR THE GREATER GOOD!”
