News Release 08-131-D

UCC announces scholarship strictly for military veterans

	News Release 08-131-D	For more information:
	Release date: 05/18/09	Bentley Gilbert
	For immediate release	(541) 440-7747
	http://www.umpqua.edu/ 

Winchester -- In honor of George Shaffer, the late husband of Cow Creek tribal chair Sue Shaffer and a proud soldier, an active military veteran and promoter of education at all levels, Umpqua Community College announces its first-ever scholarship strictly for military veterans, the George Shaffer Memorial Scholarship Fund.

With a lead gift from UCC President Blaine Nisson, the scholarship fund is seeking donations to help it grow from residents with an interest in education, support for America’s veterans and the memory of George Shaffer. Any donations to this fund that are from first-time donors or in excess of the amount a donor may have given previously will be eligible for the matching grant from James F. and Marion L. Miller. In other words, every dollar from a donor will become $2 as it is matched, dollar for dollar, by the Miller Foundation.

“This comes at a time when Charlie Company of the Oregon National Guard has just left the state for duty in Afghanistan and as we honor our veterans on Memorial Day 2009,” said UCC Foundation director Dennis O’Neill. “Of course, there are many veterans from America’s earlier conflicts as well as recent service in Iraq who are now looking for the means to continue their education.”

George Shaffer, who died December 26, 2008, at the age of 94, joined the U.S. Army just six weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i and the United States’ entry into World War II, and served in the Pacific Theater where he was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds received in combat. He turned down the medal saying he didn’t need anything to remind him of the horrors of war.

“George was a promoter of education at all levels,” Sue Shaffer said recently. “He had little tolerance for a lack of knowledge and less tolerance for parents who did not make education a priority so their children could become self-sufficient.”

Selection of students for the scholarship will be based on need and made by the UCC Financial Aid Committee and staff members from the Douglas County Veterans’ Services Office from among Douglas County residents who are honorably discharged veterans of the armed services, including the Oregon National Guard. The scholarship is available to part-time or full-time students who will be required to maintain a 2.5 grade point average.