By Alan Sorensen
ROCKY BOY -- Two generous donations have brought Stone Child College's endowment fund to within $5,080 of its $35,000 goal for matching federal funds.
RJS & Associates of Rocky Boy donated $7,500 and Havre surgeon Dr. James Rogers donated $5,000 to the Chippewa Cree tribal community college's Title III Endowment Fund. This brings the total to $29,923.50 of Dec. 31, 1999.
Once Stone Child reaches its goal of $35,000 for the Title III Endowment Fund, the U.S. Department of Education will contribute a matching $35,000 to the fund. The matching opportunity is available to SCC through a five-year Title III grant. Next year, the match will be increased to $69,000, and will be set at $70,000 the subsequent three years.
SCC must secure funds from other than governmental sources for the match. Now, 16 SCC employees are contributing to the fund, as are 14 other area businesses. Ed Stamper, SCC foundation director, said a complete list of donors will be published in an annual report and sent to each donor by March 31, 2000.
On Tuesday, SCC President Steve Galbavy presented a gift and certificate of appreciation to Dr. Robert J. Swan, president and chief executive officer of RJS & Associates.
"Stone Child has been very good to RJS and given us a contract now for four years, and we feel that in our corporation giving that we give back to our clients and their clientele," Dr. Swan said Wednesday. "We created my mother's scholar fund and we've give to it for three years and the Peggy Nagel Scholarship fund.
"This year we wanted to give some of our donation to the endowment fund, because they've got a figure they've got to raise this year. ... The future is higher and we wanted to help the college go toward that $35,000."
Swan encourages other people in the area to consider giving to SCC, too.
"Other people in the community, if they can afford it, including the Havre community which do business at Rocky Boy, should consider making a donation to Stone Child College, especially to their endowment."
On Wednesday, Galbavy made a similar presentation to Dr. Rogers.
"My wife and I were just happy to do that," Dr. Rogers said in a telephone interview this morning. "I think that the college on the reservation in this are is a particularly important thing that I've seen in my time here, and anything that we can do to support the institution is to the good."
"It is through the support of donors such as Dr. Swan and Dr. Rogers that our endowment fund-raising goal this year will be reached," Galbavy said. "The continued growth of our endowment fund promotes the long-term sustainability of our tribal college.
"Our main goal remains to eventually not have to rely on the federal government for our base funding, but rather support our essential needs with the interest generated from the endowment fund."
Dr. Swan also donated $6,324 to the Margaret P. Swan Memorial Scholarship Fund and $4,608 to the Peggy Nagel Memorial Fund in 1999.
Anyone interested in donating to or seeking additional information about the endowment fund is asked to please contact the Foundations and Research Department at SCC. Stamper can be reached at (406) 395-4313.
