Provided Photo Gale Eilola, left, And Byron Sailor work the grill at the Tony Selkey Memorial Golf Scramble 

BARAGA — The Baraga County Community Foundation (BCCF) has $30,000 set aside in grants and scholarships to celebrate its 30 years of grant making. The funds are available to Baraga County students and programs within the county.

BCCF Executive Director Gordette Leutz said the impact the BCCF has on the county makes every minute working in the nonprofit field worth it.

“To be able to meet the volunteers of our area programs and to see how hard they our working for others, and to be able to fund those programs, makes every day of fundraising for our services worth it,” she said.

Leutz explained the BCCF has been involved with assisting many aspects of Baraga’s communities such as schools, veterans, the arts, athletic programs, cultural services, health and emergency services and more.

There are seven types of scholarships available for students in Baraga Area Schools and five for L’Anse Area Schools students. An example of one of the scholarships is the Supanich Fish Scholarship, which is applicable to a student entering college interesting in teaching, education, nursing or political science with a GPA of 3.0. Another example is the Aino S. Hill Scholarship, which is applicable to students who have a music background to further their studies in that field or majoring in education. Applications are available at the school offices and due by May 1.

Scholarships for immersion supper camps at the Concordia Language College in Bemidji, Minnesota is open to all students of Baraga County, including those who are home schooled. Home schooled students can access applications by contacting the BCCF at (906) 353-7898.

The grant applications available are for soil conservation and preservation and health and human services. These grant applications are available by contacting BCCF and due May 1. Those eligible for the grants must be nonprofit groups that have projects being conducted within Baraga County.

“To be able to access funding from other sources for our community, all of these and so much more, is what makes a community foundation,” Leutz said. “And it is why we have such wonderful volunteers and caring professionals helping us to manage it all. A community foundation is intended to last forever, and with the support of our community, we will continue to provide these services, for good. Forever.”