All posts by Dave Schaeffer

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Summer Camp Scholarship requests open through February 26!

We recognize that Summer Camp can be too expensive for many families to afford. We are excited to be able to offer scholarships to support families in need so that they can be part of Chester’s summer programs.

The scholarship request period opens on February 10 and closes on February 26. 

Scholarship funding was raised through Fall Fest gate donations, an annual silent auction and raffle, the November Warren Miller film screening, donations from individuals and businesses, and through a generous grant of $12,500 from Essentia Health Community Contributions.

Total scholarship awards are limited to $32,750, and we do expect requests to exceed funding that is available. We will be prioritizing the families with the greatest need.

Please fill out this form by February 26 to request a scholarship.

All families requesting scholarship support will be required to pay the $75 registration fee even if they are otherwise awarded a full scholarship. Chester Bowl staff will contact families by the end of the day February 28 to share scholarship award results so that families know their scholarship award before registration opens. Each camper will receive one week of summer camp at no charge beyond the registration fee. The remaining funds will be dispersed to families based on their need as described by the current HUD income guidelines.

We expect that scholarships will be fully awarded based on the requests, so please register by February 26! Once families register we will apply their scholarships to their balance and then parents are responsible for paying their balance by May 1, 2025 or they will forfeit their camp spots. Please note that receiving a scholarship does not guarantee registration- you will still need to sign up for camp while there are open weeks.

For more information on summer camp, please click this link.

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Match Donation Goal Exceeded!

We are always amazed and inspired by the generosity of the Chester Bowl Community. Thank you for stepping up for us once again!

With only two days left in our match period, we still needed to raise $1,378 to obtain our full match. With the deadline looming, 24 of you donated a total of nearly $7,000 to bring us to $55,603 raised!

Then, right at the end, we had two donors that wanted to make sure that we didn’t just meet our goal, we smashed it. One anonymous supporter donated $10,000! Loll Designs donated to Growing Up Chester for the fifth consecutive year. Their $5,000 contribution brings their total support for Chester Bowl to $100,000!!!

That brings our final fundraising total during this match period to $70,603, ensuring that we will receive the full $50,000 match from our generous anonymous donor.

We appreciate every single one of you that has donated to Growing Up Chester over the years. We have had this ambitious dream completely renovate and expand the beloved Thom Storm Chalet. That dream came with a big price tag- $3,850,000. Thanks to all of you, the project is now 88% funded, with just $450,000 left to raise!

What’s next? We will continue to raise money to fill that funding gap. We expect to be able to access the $2.3 million LCCMR grant in July; at that point we will begin the next stage of design work for the building.

Part of our fundraising strategy in the next six months includes approaching additional businesses about supporting Growing Up Chester. If your place of work is philanthropically minded, or you think it should be, please reach out to Dave (dave@chesterbowl.org) to help us make the connection! And, as always, you can still make a donation to Growing Up Chester- look for the green “DONATE TODAY” button.