New Ricker scholarships lost for this year

By Karen Donato
Staff Writer
    Gary Bossie, executive director of the Ricker Endowment fund has announced that there will be no new scholarships available for this year’s graduating class.
    Bossie said, “Due to the down-turn of the market we lost $2.875 million from our endowment fund. Therefore after consulting Tom Pierce, our financial consultant with H.M. Payson & Company of Portland, the scholarship committee decided to just maintain the 90 scholarships already in place.”
    The scholarship program was established several years after the closing of Ricker College in 1978. The major monies were from the bequests of the Reid family, the Knox estate and funds held at the closing of the college. Other bequests have been added to the scholarship fund since that time.
    The $1,000 scholarships were awarded to more than a dozen graduates beginning in 1985 and then in 2005 the scholarships were increased to $1,500 each and available to 30 students. The scholarships are renewable all four years of the student’s education as long as the student remains in good standing at the college he/she is enrolled in.
    Ricker board member, Joe Inman said, “The fund has been a great success and provided a lot of money to students not only in Aroostook County, but also from the surrounding communities of Patten and Danforth. There is also a scholarship for a Washington County student.”
     Inman added that students are also eligible to reapply once they are in college if they did not receive an initial scholarship at the time of their freshman year.
    The first scholarships gave some priority to students whose families had been former Ricker students or graduates, but now are available to every Aroostook County high school student who is in the top quarter of their class, are pursuing four-year degrees and who remain in good standing with their respective schools.
    Bossie hopes that the new scholarships will be offered next year, but there is no guarantee.
    “It will be a wait and see situation,” he said.
    The Ricker board, a non-profit charitable organization has awarded more than $3 million dollars of scholarships to students from the area.