Flagler County, FL (April 27, 2021) Seeking to support students with a particular trajectory in mind, Dr. Kideste Yusef, Jake Scully and Ed Fuller, all members of the Flagler Tiger Bay Club, were among the teams going door-to-door on Tuesday afternoon notifying recipients of their scholarship awards, during the Flagler County Education Foundation’s “Surprise & Drive” event.
Disbursing $21,000 in funds raised by the Flagler Tiger Bay Club, which has only met virtually for the past year due to the pandemic, club president Greg Davis was pleased to see the organization meet their annual commitment to Flagler’s students.
“Our scholarship committee planned and executed an amazing scholarship drive bringing $21,000 in scholarship donations in this COVID pandemic year,” said Davis.
“Planning and execution had begun pre-pandemic and this committee of experienced executives demonstrated their agility adjusting to the pandemic, and bringing in several big donors enabling us to meet our objectives. I am very thankful to all of those who contributed to this scholarship drive.”
Sharing a look behind the scenes, scholarship committee chair Gary Walsh said it was difficult to narrow it down to five recipients with the number of high quality applications received.
“There was a significant amount of information from each applicant relating to their academic performance, their honoraria, their school related activities, their community and other outside school activities, their expected areas of study at the next level, their anticipated career paths and other relevant information,” shared Walsh. 
“As an organization, we had developed criteria that would emphasize the mission of Flagler Tiger Bay,” he said.
Criteria included an interest in government, law, criminal justice, not-for-profit work, community service and related areas, according to Walsh, but applicants also needed to demonstrate a commitment to serving the community, something in which Flagler County students actively engage in on a regular basis.
“As you might expect, the committee members had some difficult choices to make as many of the applicants exhibited strong academics and community service, as well as a desire to continue their studies in the desired fields,” said Walsh of the selection process.
Providing ten scholarships for $2,000 each during the 2019-20 school year, the Flagler Tiger Bay Club decided to concentrate their efforts more strategically this year.
“It was determined this year that we wanted to have our scholarships have a more significant impact for each student,” he said. “Thus we awarded four $4,000 scholarships and one $5,000 scholarship. The additional $1,000 scholarship was solely because that particular student was active during the entire year in Flagler Tiger Bay.”
Students awarded with scholarships from the Flagler Tiger Bay Club included Flagler Palm Coast High School senior Reilly Maresca, and Matanzas High School seniors Brianna Whitfield, Jessica Slusarz, Hope Singleton and Lovie Haley.
For more information on the Flagler Tiger Bay Club, visit www.flaglertigerbayclub.com.
