From the Home Economics classroom at Brunswick High where the Brunswick Area Student Aid Fund had its first meeting in 1957 to the deck at the Brunswick Golf Club in 2023, graduates of Brunswick and Mt. Ararat High continue to come together to support the most recent generation of graduates.
Lately they have been called to the Brunswick Golf Club by the BHS Class of 1980. The Class of 1980 uses the proceeds from its annual Dragon Scramble to honor the legacies of longtime school department employees through scholarships in their names administered by the Brunswick Area Student Aid Fund (BASAF). This year, the sixth annual scramble, the Class of 1980 decided to use the proceeds to endow a scholarship in honor of Peter Gardner, Brunswick High’s first, and longest serving, varsity soccer coach, a math teacher, and a school administrator. Coach Gardner put 43 years in the Brunswick School system. He is pictured above with his sons and grandsons.
Charlie Gordon a previous honoree with a BASAF scholarship in his name played; here his son Blake tees off
Organization for next year’s Dragon Scramble, has already begun. Put it in your calendar, July 1, 2024. In addition to the great cause it supports, it is a great social event and a mini-reunion.
Rita O’Connor Maines, one of the major movers for the Class of 80, says that the scramble was the first step to raise $10,000 in order to fund an endowed scholarship with BASAF. “I know we'll do it in 1-3 years like we did for Kaye and Charlie,” she said referring to the class of 80’s earlier successful efforts to name BASAF scholarships for Kaye George and Charlie Gordon.
BASAF’s Treasurer Dan Doiron said, “We are so grateful for their commitment and support of BASAF! We are so pleased when individuals entrust BASAF to be the steward of their funds in order to promote the higher education of our region's young people.”
This year BASAF granted more than $543,000 in scholarships to 136 area students split about equally between graduates of Mt. Ararat and Brunswick High schools. To be eligible a student need not attend Brunswick or Mt. Ararat, they only need live in Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Brunswick, Harpswell, or Topsham, the five towns that sent students to Brunswick High School back in 1950’s when Mario Tonin, a principal at Brunswick High and later Superintendent, launched BASAF in that Home Economics classroom.
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BASAF measures an eligible student’s need based on the federal student aid forms (FAFSA) against costs of the program the student will attend and assesses the gap the family needs to fill. BASAF awards are presented at the annual senior night awards ceremonies at the schools. This year awards of as much as $4800 were made. BASAF mails checks directly to the schools, one in July and a second in time for the second semester. Students are eligible to reapply for the scholarship a second year too.
There’s more to it than just golf. Ed Wilson and Lisa Waite Greenlaw, both BHS ‘79 enjoy the deck, and some laughs.
The $10,000 threshold is the baseline for BASAF to consider a scholarship endowed in perpetuity. The funds are invested and the endowment grows. BASAF typically disburses between 3.5 and 4% of their endowment value each year.
It is a rare treat to watch the expressions on student’s faces when they peak in those envelopes and then look up to make eye contact with their family. In talking about what BASAF means in the community Rita mentioned her own relief and gratitude as a parent when she sent her own kids off to school with the support of BASAF. Rita is definitely the public face of this effort, drumming up support and sending reminders but it is clearly a team effort from large numbers of the class with the big oars being pulled by Rick George, Donna Ouellette Dumas, Lisa Fuchs Andrews, Deb Dubail, and Lee Brawn.
You can scan this QR code to contribute directly to the Peter Gardner Scholarship but BASAF accepts donations for their other funds as well as for non-endowed schoalrships Here’s a link to their contributions page..
This year 23 teams took part, in 2024 look for 36 teams on the links. This will punch up the fundraising and give the Class of 80 a lot to think about when considering their next honoree. Names and reminiscences were flying for sure. “I think It would be great,” Rita concluded, “if other classes adopted someone who was an important person in their school years.”
If you’d like to read about other named scholarships they are all on BASAF’s website.
For the record, even though everyone went home a winner, the best total gross and net scores were put up by the foursome of Mike Fish, Lee Brawn, Jerry Lentz, and Paul Blakeman. A full photo gallery is here.
The winning foursome
