By RAY BENTON
Special to the Leader
Cabot athletic director Johnny White is taking a step outside his comfort zone and allowing himself to be insulted for a good cause Thursday night. He will be the guest of honor for the annual Cabot Scholarship Foundation Roast.
“I’m really uncomfortable in that kind of thing,” White said. “I’d rather just go to work and do my job. It’s for a good cause though so I guess I’ll let some people make fun of me a little bit and hopefully it’ll be fun.”
Among White’s roasters will be Joey Walters, Randy Beaver and Flynn Reavely.
This is the 16th year for the fund, and this is the biggest year in its history. A total of 35 scholarships will be awarded totaling $35,000.
This is the largest number of scholarships we have ever given,” Carolyn Park, who helped get the program started in 1992, said. “I am so pleased. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that we have as many as we do. I never thought we’d be giving away 35 scholarships.”
The community has stepped forward and supported the program. The fund currently gets most of its money from individual donations. The annual roast is the only fundraiser for the scholarship fund.
“Many of the donations are memorials for people who have passed,” Park said. “Some are in honor of people who are still living. We have some clubs and organizations and some businesses that have made contributions as well, but most of our contributions come from individuals.”
This year the foundation board itself is funding one scholarship in honor of Don Elliot, who recently moved. He, along with Park and Cal Aldridge, was one of the original board members.
The program gave away one scholarship for 10k in its first year, compared to 35 scholarships in the amount of $1,000 each this year. Fundraising officials said they often find that a student has to drop out of school because of $1,000, but would also like to increase the amount of their scholarships.
Park said that lower interest rates have hurt endowments and that fundraising will help to offset those losses.
