Community Scholarship Fund of Teaneck Seeks Donations for Graduating Seniors

Officials with the Community Scholarship Fund of Teaneck are reaching out to township residents this week in an effort to raise money for college-bound high school seniors.

Teaneck residents, as well as past individual and business donors, should be receiving mailings this week from fund organizers.

Scholarships that range from $400 to a cap of $2,000 are awarded each June to high school seniors who show a financial need and who demonstrate academic achievement and involvement in school and community activities. The only criterion is that applicants be Teaneck residents.

Chairperson Carol Otis said since 1957, when the fund started, more than 2,400 Teaneck seniors from public and private schools have received assistance toward their first year of college thanks to the Community Scholarship Fund of Teaneck.

Otis said she sends applications out to area high schools for school officials to disperse or announce in bulletins to students and their parents. The deadline for applying each year is sometime in March, and 29 seniors this year are in the process of fulfilling requirements to be eligible for the scholarships.  

This past weekend, the teens fulfilled their first requirement of two hours of community service toward soliciting donations for the fund. The teens stood outside various businesses around Teaneck collecting cash from passersby.

While the collection money is still being counted, Otis said she expects that the teens helped bring in more than $2,000.

The rest of the money raised each year comes from individual and business donations. Those who donate $100 or more can have their donation be awarded in their name or as a memorial in memory of a loved one.

Last year, the Community Scholarship Fund of Teaneck awarded $38,500 in one-year scholarships to 34 graduating seniors, according to a NorthJersey.com article.

“If people think that education is important and that investing in the future of our youth is important, then I hope that people give,” Otis said. “We have one woman who each year gives $1 because that is all that she can afford. And I just think that is beautiful. She can’t afford much, but she makes sure to give to these students.”

Next week, the applicants will be fulfilling their second requirement of an interview with fund organizers.

Donald Otis, husband of Carol Otis, said he met the applicants last week when he was prepping the teens for soliciting donations.

“The applicants this year are just a wonderful group of kids,” he said.

Donald said his sister was one of the first recipients of the Community Scholarship Fund of Teaneck. “She received $100 at that time for her first year at ,” he said.

This year’s scholarship winners will be announced in early June at an assembly at , which hosts their own school-award presentation and allows Community Scholarship Fund organizers to announce their winners at that event.

“The scholarship is awarded in two parts,” Donald said. “Half of the money goes directly to the Bursar’s office before the first semester, and the second half of the scholarship is sent in time for the second semester.”

For information about the scholarship or to make a donation, readers can call Carol Otis at 201-836-1810 or Marie Warnke at 201-692-8222.