Helping Vail Valley students in need
lglendenning@vaildaily.com
Vail CO Colorado
Vail Valley organization name: HERO Scholarship Fund, Colorado Mountain College Foundation
Executive Director/president: Alex Yajko, president of the CMC Foundation
Location: Edwards Colorado Mountain College campus
Phone number: 970-569-2907 or 970-569-2908
Web address: http://www.cmcfoundation.org
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Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Years in business: 5
What is the organization’s mission and who benefits from its work?
HERO Committee’s mission is to provide scholarship and resource support for deserving Eagle County students, including graduating high school students and continuing education adult learners.
Where does your funding come from?
Individual donors and foundations.
How many staff members work for you?
We have one part-time staff member.
Anything else you’d like the community to know about the organization?
This is a grassroots volunteer committee that raises funds for deserving students who attend the Eagle Vail Colorado Mountain College Campus. We participate in a valley-wide scholarship consortium to ensure that our funds are targeting those most deserving with true financial need.
For every dollar raised, we spend 96 percent on tuition and books, 4 percent on student advisement, donor recognition and student administration. We interview over 60 students annually and provide approximately $60,000 each year to qualified students.
The HERO scholarship funds stay in our valley. Our goal is to provide opportunities for locals who live and work in our valley, but cannot afford or do not have the ability to travel to a four-year state university.
To date, we have provided scholarship money to more than 130 students. We have 58 students who have graduated with associate degrees or certificates of completion from those designated programs.
Contact Community Editor Lauren Glendenning at lglendenning@vaildaily.com or 970-748-2983.