Sumner Senior Center gives back through scholarship fund

Quentin Clark spent more than 60 years in the classroom while working as a teacher in the Dieringer School District.

The now-retired teacher watched countless students move through kindergarten to graduating high school during his long teaching career.

As the newest board member on the Sumner Senior Center Advisory Board, Clark thought it was time the city-funded Sumner Senior Center give back. Leadership students from Sumner High School often lend a hand during events at the center, which made the idea for creating a scholarship program an easy one.

“We wanted to give back to the community, and this is our way of thanking the city,” Clark said.

The $500 scholarship is open to any Sumner High senior with good academic standing, leadership experience through the school’s leadership class, and enrolled in a two- or four-year college, said Melissa Holt, program director at the Sumner Senior Center.

The advisory board been raising funds to make Clark’s idea of giving back to the community a reality.

“We fundraised the money at our annual rummage sale in August,” said Karen Spisak, chair of the board. “Students have stepped in to help, and have stepped in in little ways, too.”

Working with the Sumner-Bonney Lake Education Foundation, Holt and the board are awarding the scholarship to a 2016 graduating senior.

“They care for us, and we care for them,” Clark said.

The scholarship application is expected to be posted on the Sumner-Bonney Lake Education Foundation’s website by the end of the month, Holt said.

For more information on the scholarship, visit http://www.sblef.org/.

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 2:36 PM with the headline "Sumner Senior Center gives back through scholarship fund."