Dear REAL NEO,

I had an idea to start a scholarship fund in Ward 14 for graduates of Lincoln West High School, honoring Rocco Olivero.  I wrote up all the concepts from my experience to motivate and promote civic involvement and inspire community service from our local students. 

My original goal was simple... Lincoln West High School student from 9th grade to 12th grade engaged within their community, promote civic involvement, inspire them to help the people around them, and encourage them to take notice of their own neighborhoods. I wanted to share something that the parochial high schools require to graduate, community service. Moreover, I wanted to provide hope, inspiration, and direction to kids who don't have these kind of expectations at home. I wanted to make them feel like a bigger part of the picture than they may have realized before. Most importantly, it was my goal to use this as a way of encouraging kids to help our vulnerable seniors with enumerable projects, help clean up our streets, help promote block clubs and to inspire an entire community to collaborate for the common good of everyone involved.

Rocco Olivero was a very wonderful proactive gentleman who was highly engaged with students, neighborhood issues, and was proactive in many civic issues. Rocco cared deeply about our community and the people in it. Rocco never hesitated to say it like it is, refer you to solutions, and to ask you how you were doing. Rocco was a gem of a man who passed in December 2007. He is missed tremendously by many of the residents in the Clark Metro area. His fortitude, his inspiration, and his dedication to our community were priceless.

In recognizing that there's approximately a  50% drop out rate or more between freshman and senior years... I wanted to teach these kids to believe in themselves, the possibilities, and to train them to know the basics of post secondary training requirements. I believe in my heart that when we show these kids that we care, then they care back... So many of them just don't care because no one has time to care about them....

Fortifying this type of scholarship fund would require a lot of initial time, setup, and promotion until it stabilized for the future generations. The goal was to collaborate an annual cycle of activities, specific fundraisers, and to work  directly with the Clark Metro Development Corporation as the mother organization.

I have told many about this idea and written an outline of everything herein, but I need a little help doing it "RIGHT". I am hoping for positive feedback... but mostly what I have gotten to date is everyone looking for a paycheck to execute this program/scholarship fund. 

Since my goal was not about making money for me, but for raising money that would provide inspiration to our teenagers after high school, I ask if anyone is interested in helping me to solidify the legalities of this Scholarship Fund in order to implement it properly without seeking money for their work? 

I believe in our children in Ward 14! I want them to have opportunities and most importantly hope and inspiration... I know that there are a lot of kids from our neighborhood who have seen some really struggling lives... But I still believe in their possibilities...  and I want them to know that we care about their futures too!