Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation

Berkshire Taconic Awards $29,000 in Scholarships to
32 Students from Columbia County

August 31, 2010

SHEFFIELD, MA—Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation announced today that seven of its scholarship funds awarded $29,000 in scholarships to students from Columbia County. The funds (CHA-NEL Scholarship Fund, Sean French Scholarship Fund, Quailwood Fund and Jeannine Triau Scholarship Fund) made awards to 32 students.

“We were pleased to be able to help so many students this year,” said Maeve O’Dea, program director at Berkshire Taconic. “Especially in these difficult times, scholarships make a huge difference to families who face soaring college costs.”

The CHA-NEL Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for Chatham and New Lebanon High School seniors, awarded a total of $12,000 this year to the following 14 students: Katherine Behrens to attend Ithaca College; Brianna Diskin to attend College of St. Rose; Jayne Gavrity to attend University of Rochester; Kristine Greco to attend Hudson Valley Community College; Hannah Hogan to attend SUNY Oneonta; Brianna Laraway to attend Morrisville State College; Susan Matthews to attend Dartmouth College; Elyse Miller to attend Drexel University; Leah Miller to attend Drexel University; Wade Okawa-Scannel to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Daniel Padrick to attend CUNY Hunter; Molly Risko to attend Penn State; Lily Siegel to attend Brandeis University and Kaylie Warner to attend Berkshire Community College.

The Sean French Scholarship Fund awards scholarships to graduating seniors of Chatham High School. This year, the $1,000 scholarship, which honors the memory of Sean Patrick French, was awarded to Joseph Cozzolini and Aimee Palleschi both of Chatham. The $500 scholarships for Section II school athletes who are winners of the Good Sportsmanship Award have been awarded to Rachel Cyrus of Burnt Hills and Zach Nelson of Delanson. The $500 scholarships awarded to seniors of Chatham High School for “Love of Running” have been given to Emma Gryner, Molly Koweek, Philip Mastrosimone, Cordero McCall, Chloe Meltz and Thomas Shevar.

The Quailwood Fund, which provides scholarships to residents of Red Rock, NY, awarded a total of $8,800 in scholarships this year. Scholarships were awarded to Caroline Eigenbrodt, Jennifer Nightingale, Ryan Nightingale, Emily Tuczinski and Joseph Van Allen.

The Jeannine Triau Fund awarded a scholarship to Jacquita Ferguson of East Nassau to attend Mass College of Liberal Arts in the fall and Geneva Furlano of Canaan to attend University of Rochester.

You can donate online to any of these funds, or by calling 413.229.0370.

Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation builds stronger communities and improves the quality of life for all residents of Berkshire County, MA; Columbia County and northeast Dutchess County, NY; and northwest Litchfield County, CT. Berkshire Taconic connects donors with causes they care about by administering and investing their charitable funds. Thanks to its generous donors, in 2009 Berkshire Taconic distributed nearly $7 million in scholarships and grants for programs in the arts and education, health and human services, and environmental protection. Berkshire Taconic is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

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