A motorcycle group from an American Legion post in Butler County has contributed another $10,000 to its Butler County Community College scholarship fund.
The Butler American Legion Riders from Post 117 established the Butler American Legion Riders Veterans Incentive Scholarship Post 117 with the BC3 Education Foundation in 2015. The scholarship reached a $10,000 endowment level in 2018. The group, based in Butler, contributed another $10,000 in July.
This supports student-veterans pursuing higher education as they transition to civilian life.
Denny Christie, the Riders’ president and a former military police officer in the Army in the 1970s said BC3 is the only institution of higher education to which the Riders contribute financial gifts.
“That definitely reinforces that we made the right decision that BC3 is out there willing to help our veterans as well,” Christie said. “It makes you feel very good.”
Added Chelsea Walker: “It really is a military-friendly school.”
Walker in 2020-2021 was the ninth BC3 student-veteran to receive the $500 award and Marshana Harris this fall will be the 10th, according to Lynn Ismail, interim assistant director of the BC3 Education Foundation and its financial manager.
Walker and Harris are among the 55 veterans and active-duty military enrolled this fall at one of the many BC3’s campuses. Each branch of the military is represented by BC3 student-veterans or active-duty military. BC3’s eldest student-veteran is 58; the youngest, an 18-year-old who serves in the Pennsylvania National Guard, Smith said.
The Riders’ scholarship supports student-veterans or active-duty military as they pursue higher education in their transition to civilian life, said Smith, whose father served in the Army in the Korean War.
“It helps,” Smith said, “because when they are discharged from the military, a lot of the veterans do not have jobs. And they have other expenses. So this helps them. Being fellow veterans, the (Riders) know that. They want to pay it forward.”
Nearly 45 percent of BC3’s student-veterans or active-duty military are enrolled full-time and nearly 45 percent are females.
