Students Look to Community to Support Barbara McCune Scholarship

When , two Drake High School students were determined that her memory would live on. McCune had worked in the school’s College and Career Center for nearly 20 years, tirelessly helping get kids into college and forging strong relationships along the way.

Senior students Lauren Pey and Lindsay Rogers spearheaded a campaign to create a scholarship in McCune’s name, supported by Principal Don Drake, the school’s faculty and its Scholarship Foundation. The Barbara McCune Educational Scholarship was born, and a “Fun-Raiser” is slated for March 12 to help raise the goal of $20,000. The students are calling on the community to lend a hand with donations of auction items, cash or any support they can contribute.

“Barbara made me feel like she was my own personal college counselor, and made so many other Drake students feel the same way,” wrote Lauren Pey in an e-mail. “She was intuitive; Barbara could pick up on my goals without my ever having talked to her about them, and she always knew how to help me achieve those goals. She was supportive of all students' goals, regardless of whether they wanted to attend Stanford in the fall, or work for a year before deciding if college was the right option for them.”

Rick Franceschini, president of the Drake Scholarship Foundation, explained that while the school has a number of scholarships, this was the first time in his memory that one was founded by students.

“It’s a neat thing that these two girls are doing,” he said. Franceschini’s own father, who was a football coach at Drake, has a scholarship in his name as well. He said the McCune Scholarship was faring well, about three-quarters of the way to the $20,000 that is required to fund the scholarship for perpetuity, but the March 12 event is crucial to closing the gap and will benefit from community involvement.

McCune, originally from Michigan, was 68 when she died of a heart attack. She is survived by her husband, Lawrence, and two children, both of whom attended Drake High. Her years spent at the school made her extremely popular among both the student body and parents, as she matched pupils to scholarships and opened doors to higher learning for them.

Susan Lundy posted the following note on McCue’s obituary notice in the Marin Independent Journal: “Barbara gave 100% in her help. Ten years ago she convinced our son to aim high: she wrote a great letter of recommendation and guided him throughout the process, and he got to go to his top choice (Occidental). Four years later, he had his B.A., his maturity, and his sense of direction. Barbara started it all.”

In a statement announcing the scholarship, Pey and Rogers wrote that, “We really are counting on neighborhood businesses to dig deep and be generous so Barbara’s legacy of helping local students can continue.”

Barbara McCune Educational Scholarship “Fun-Raiser” will be Saturday, March 12, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Sleepy Hollow Homes Association Clubhouse.

For more information, contact: Drake Scholarship Foundation (Barbara McCune), 1327 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, San Anselmo, CA 94960; Rick Franceschini – President of the Drake Scholarship Foundation