Group hosts Erie County scholarship breakfast

HURON TWP. — Erie County student scholarship recipients gathered last week to honor their achievements over breakfast. On June 7, the Erie County Community Foundation hosted its first Scholarship Recognition Breakfast at Sawmill Creek Resort in Huron Township. In short, different organizations and individuals awarded about $287,500 in scholarship funds to nearly 150 Erie County high school and college students. The foundation has awarded nearly $2 million in scholarships in its 29 years, giving to local students so they can fund their post-secondary educations. One event organizer, Judy Pflieger, is a member of the College Women's Club of Sandusky, a group of college-educated women. While beginning as a social organization, the club also awards scholarships to students every year. "I originally joined the club because I had friends who were in it," Pflieger said. "The club is a very diverse group. Everyone has a different education. Now I'm on the scholarship committee. The club has a certain amount of dollars and the scholarship committee decides who gets what money." Out of the 150 or so attendees at the breakfast — including scholarship winners, their parents, donors and important local school staff members — Caja Boeseneilers represented one student scholarship recipient. She received about $1,500 from the College Women's Club Charitable Fund Scholarship and about $4,900 from the Ewalt & Jocelyn Maurushat Engineering Scholarship. She plans to study mechanical engineering with a concentration in aerospace in the honors program at Ohio Northern University. "I feel lucky to have received this substantial amount of money," Caja said. "I'm very grateful for it and for Ewalt & Jocelyn specifically because they put their whole memory into the scholarship. I hope I make them proud in college." Jocelyn Maurushat had started the engineering scholarship after her husband Ewalt, a retired General Motors engineer and inventor, passed. After her own death, the couple's memory continues to stay alive in their generous donations to students. "In celebrating our student recipients, we honor not just their achievements, but the legacy of those who paved the way for education's transformative power," said Debralee Divers, the foundation's scholarship chair and board member. "I'm inspired by the echoes of history in their endeavors, knowing that each recipient carries forward a torch ignited by those who believed in the promise of knowledge," Divers said, adding how these students "now have opportunities to give back to the community that has supported them and use their education and skills to pay it forward to the next generation."