Residents of the Cypress Landing neighborhood held a reception on Nov. 7 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Cypress Landing Scholarship Endowment through the Beaufort County Community College Foundation.

The reception included representatives from BCCC’s administration, scholarship recipients, BCCC ambassadors and Cypress Landing residents.

Eight students have been awarded Cypress Landing scholarships since inception of the endowment. The goal of the current fundraising drive, which began with the recent reception and concurrent solicitations from residents, is to increase the endowment to approximately $50,000 to celebrate BCCC’s 50th anniversary in 2017. Endowments are invested by the foundation and the interest they produce is used to fund scholarships to eligible students. This will allow the foundation to award additional scholarships each semester.

Dennis Pelletier, a board member for the BCCC Foundation and a resident of the Cypress Landing neighborhood, wrote, “We are quite confident that our residents will reach this goal.”

Homeowners in the neighborhood joined forces in 2007 to create this first-of-its-kind endowment at BCCC. Helen Sommerkamp-Inman and Chris Harris led the effort to organize the campaign, and within a few months, this small community of 500 homes met a big goal of $10,000. The scholarship is awarded to a BCCC student residing in Beaufort County and who demonstrates need.

The endowment is one of many managed by the BCCC Foundation to provide financial support to students attending the community college. For information about setting up an endowment on behalf of a neighborhood, church or civic organization, contact Serena Sullivan at 252-940-6326 or serena.sullivan@beaufortccc.edu.