Minnesota GLBT Scholarship Announced.

(Received as an email to Scouting for All)

Hello again. It's been great to have contact with you in the past.

I'm a former long term St. Paul elected school board member and the only openly GLBT elected official ever in St. Paul history.

I'm setting up a scholarship fund that I thought you might be interested in knowing about. It would be great if you could let people know about the Jan. 27th event.

Students also need to know the SCHOLARSHIP EXISTS. Application information is available from www.philanthrofund.org and the deadline I believe is Feb. 1.

For me this project will both do something productive and help me to reconnect with many of my past supporters and friends. Hopefully the January 27th event will be a healing experience for me. Certainly the response from elected officials so far has been encouraging, and, in fact, healing.

Here's the article that should appear in the January St. Paul-Ref newsletter per Pastor Anita:

GLBT SCHOLARSHIP FUNDRAISER

Watch out, elected officials and school leaders are coming to St. Paul-Ref, AND YOU'RE INVITED, TOO!! An event on Sunday, January 27, 3 to 5 p.m. will celebrate Al Oertwig's almost 20 years of service on the St. Paul School Board. Donations will be used to set up a scholarship fund for a GLBT identified student from a St. Paul Public School each year. Philanthrofund (PFund), a 501-c-3 organization will receive & manage donations for a scholarship. So, please save the date & attend Sunday afternoon January 27 at St. Paul-Ref.

IF you were interested, there would be several ways to be helpful:

--If you think that you have ideas for major contributions (larger than my usual contributor list), providing me with contact information would be helpful.

--Inviting your friends and others you think might be interested (see below).

Even if you're not into the scholarship, you might be interested in knowing about the Jan. 27th event. People don't need to contibute to the scholarship in order to attend the event.

For more information on my service on the school board in St. Paul, you might want to check Lavender Magazine, November 9-22 issue.

In case you're interested in helping, I've set up a form e-mail (that you can revise per your desire) in order to get people to pledge for the event at the gym ---see the material between the **********'s below. You can eliminate the rest of this note.

Al Oertwig

Dear

I'm supporting and urging you to support the establishment of a scholarship for GLBT youth being developed by long term St. Paul School Board Member, Al Oertwig. The material below will explain the scholarship and how to respond.

xXxXYOU HEREXXXXX

YES, I want to help set up the GLBT scholarship:

Pledge Amount: ____________ cents per calorie

Name: _________________________________

Send your response to Al at alsglbtzone@hotmail.com

WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THE SCHOLARSHIP??

Each year when funds are available, a $ 2,000 scholarship will be available to a GLBT identified student graduating from the St. Paul Public Schools.

WHO WILL MANAGE THE PROCESS?

PFund (Philanthrofund) has agreed to accept donations and decide the award winners based on the scholarship criteria.

ARE DONATIONS TAX DEDUCATABLE??

Yes, donations will be made out to PFund (Philantrofund) which is a 501-c-3 organization.

HOW WILL FUNDS BE RAISED? Al Oertwig & friends are responsible for raising the funds.

WHAT EVENTS ARE PLANNED TO RAISE THE FUNDS?

Al is doing an event at the gym and holding an event on Jan. 27th.

WHAT IS THE GYM EVENT AND HOW DO I KNOW HOW MUCH TO PLEDGE??

Al Oertwig will run/walk on the eliptical machine at his gym, THE FIRM. Normally Al completes around 400 to 600 calories per time, but Al hopes to use 1,000 calories, so a one cent pledge per calorie would be about $10.

THANKS TO THE FIRM for donating the equipment to be used!!!!

WHEN WILL DONATIONS BE COLLECTED??

Al plans to complete the gym event on Dec. 30 so that people wishing to make a tax deductable donation for 2007 can be notified of the amount before 2008.

OTHERS CAN BRING THEIR PLEDGE TO A SPECIAL EVENT TO BE HELD ON JANUARY 27th.

WHAT: Event to remember Al Oertwig's 20 years of St. Paul School Board service and other school related organizations and to collect the pledges for the scholarship fund.

Fourteen elected officials (so far) have already agreed to be hosts for this event, so you won't want to miss this.

DATE/TIME: January 27th -- 3 to 5 PM

PLACE: ST. PAUL REFORMATION LUTHERAN CHURCH LAUREL & OXFORD in St. Paul Directions available on request