When our Founder, Dr Anastasi passed away earlier this year, the family asked instead of flowers that friends send donations to Saturday School in his name. For many years, Bob worked closely with Dr. George Thomas who was a pioneer in education in the County. From the donations given in Bob’s name, Saturday School has created a scholarship fund.
We met with Bob’s family about how best to use it over the next three years, and they suggested 30% be given to Saturday school to be awarded to outstanding students and 70% to AmeriCorps Project CHANGE, the program Bob devoted the last years of his life. It will be divided into two types of awards.
First, the Fund will be used to give scholarships in the form of 2 “Members of the Year” awards each year ( $500 each) One award is to be nominated by the members themselves and the other to be awarded by the program.
Second, Project CHANGE members are invited to nominate one or two of their most outstanding students from their respective programs to give a Member generated award in Bob’s name. The criteria for the award is below, based on the legacy of Bob Anastasi:
The member of the year that you nominate to be awarded the Anastasi scholarship would have displayed some or all of the following traits that epitomized Bob:
1.Connects people to people to meet the needs of others
2-Treats people in a personable way, with respectful listening
3-Displays courage and resilience, not giving up in the hardest times
4-Humble and not ever wanting or doing it for credit, never seeking the limelight
5-The Disney factor, that we said was doing things with an infectious sense of joy and play
For the Member to Student awards, members will single out the most dedicated students they worked with and decide on one or two who have given outstanding service with little or no recognition.
The awards will be announced at each Graduation Ceremony that concludes each year’s program.