To the Editor:

When the Johnston High School class of 1971 gathered to celebrate its 50th reunion, the last thing on everyone’s mind was a college scholarship for newly minted high school seniors.  However, as it turns out, it was the big news of the night.  Harold J. Hemberger, reunion chair, budgeted five hundred dollars from the evening’s proceeds to award a single Johnston High School senior a scholarship the following June. The classmates gathered for the event barely recognized the Scholarship as a big deal. Three years later, the class is celebrating an ongoing victory!  The $500 dollars has blossomed into over $32,000 and the one-scholarship-and done class fund has been formalized as the first fund in the history of the Town of Johnston School System established in perpetuity!  The Fund now resides at the prestigious Rhode Island Foundation and the kids that left high school over a half century ago are wearing their class pride publicly. 

The celebration and class pride has empowered the group.  If the recent passing of a beloved classmate — Michael Belknap — a sad occasion, is any indication of the group’s resolve to grow the scholarship program in his memory, the Fund seems destined to great things in the future.  An anonymous member of the class stepped forward and offered to donate one dollar for every dollar classmates gave in Michael’s and other classmates’ memory — up to one thousand seventy one dollars — taking note of the class year of graduation.  The challenge presented by one anonymous member of the class honoring the memory of another has contributed to the Fund’s growth.  

When the Fund was recognized and welcomed into The Rhode Island Foundation family of funds it raised the level of the Fund’s community profile.  The JHS class of 1972 joined in and contributed $2,500, the proceeds from its 50th year celebration.  The Fund was formally named The Soul of 1971 Fund at The Rhode Island Foundation.  Hemberger hopes that other JHS classes will recognize the Fund’s existence and notable success and join in also.  Individuals or other high school classes willing to join the effort may contact me, Harold Hemberger, at hembergerharold@gmail.com.

Harold Hemberger,
Johnston