The last days of January, the days are lengthening. The wooden storm door needs a boost with the outside of my right foot as I lift slightly on the ancient hook and eyelet that holds it. The door shrieks a bit as it scrapes over the threshold. leaving just the cold air’s whisper as a flourish of dry powder catches the sun.
A magical moment to lean over into the olde wooden mail box to scoop up the last W- this or 10-that.
Winners on the course = winners in the classroom. This is the 2023 Dragon Scramble winning team.
We like to get our taxes done early—a refund is always nice but it also helps organize for my second favorite annual paperwork ritual, the FAFSA and its fiendish cohort the CSS profile.
We Five Columbians—that’s what the Aunts refer to us as because there are five of us living at 5 Columbia—are headed into an eighth consecutive spring of college financial planning. That’s right, every spring since 2018 a day or two gets put aside for the old man to be alone in the house to yell at the internet, the department of education, and the IRS.
I like to give one day for the FAFSA and then leave a separate day for the loathsome CSS profile that the fancy colleges require. Not a bad idea to leave a day between them for a good long walk either.
Once done I spend another day congratulating myself then I hand off to the Missus so she can start beating the bushes for scholarship money. We’re a modern family so we share the work.
One thing we’ve learned about the scholarship game is that we have one true friend. And that one true friend is the Brunswick Area Student Aid Fund.
BASAF is a true friend because they take your kid as they are. They don’t need you to prove your kid is the Captain of the football team who spends half-time with the band because they’re also the number one flautist who wrote a new composition for the band to play honoring a retiring favorite teacher. Nor do you need to hire a consultant to complete the BASAF application.
Here’s what BASAF wants to know. Does your student live in Brunswick, Topsham, Harpswell, Bowdoin, or Bowdoinham (the five towns that sent kids to BHS back in the 1950s when BASAF was founded)? Is your child going on to some sort of higher education? How much will it cost? And may we see your FAFSA please?
The Delois family has deep roots in Brunswick Education.
No beauty contest, no interview, no evening gown, no talent show.
Also I know BASAF is a true friend because I will miss them.
Six of the last seven years the Five Columbians have benefited from BASAF’s largesse. But next year my last child will enter his third year of college. BASAF makes generous grants during your first two years of school so the clock has run out on us. But it has been a good run, $22,500 spread out over those six years of eligibility. Now is the time to commit to giving back.
Just like tax forms and longer days, Rita O’Connor Maines talking up the Dragon Scramble is a sign of spring. The Dragon Scramble is the BHS Class of 1980’s way of giving back. It is golfing for good and golfing for fun. So far the Class of 1980 has endowed perpetual scholarships with BASAF in the names of Kay George, Charlie Gordon, and Peter Gardner. In 2025 they’ll hit the links on June 30th to inaugurate the drive to endow a fourth scholarship in the name of Fred Koerber.
The Wilsons. Raising glasses and draining putts to raise funds. Also doing their best to make Generation Alpha discard their bucket hats.
Not a golfer? The class of 1980 is always happy to have folks drop by for a chat and a drink on the deck. With 36(!) foursomes signed up there will be plenty of company.
You can also sponsor a hole. A little promotion for your business or maybe a hat tip to an old friend. Rates are good, you get a nice lawn sign provided by the class of 1980 out there where everyone can see it all day long.
Sponsor a hole! Rates are reasonable. You can give a hat-tip to an old friend or do a little advertising for your business.
