Local high school seniors are set to benefit from a record $50,000 in scholarships generated by proceeds from the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras, as announced today by the annual fungi festival’s Board of Directors.
Applications for the 2014 Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras Scholarships are available online at www.mhmmg.com or at Live Oak and Sobrato High School counseling offices. Applications must be returned to the Mushroom Mardi Gras office (224 Tennant Station) or the high school counseling offices by Monday, March 17.
All seniors who attend public or private high schools and reside within the geographical boundaries of the Morgan Hill Unified School District are eligible to apply.
In addition, the Board approved $18,000 in donations to school groups and clubs that participate in the festival and $7,500 in mini grants to elementary and middle schools for individual school projects.
Last year, 277 applications were received – the largest amount in the history of the festival – and 47 high school seniors were given scholarships totaling $47,000.
The festival has doled out more than $800,000 in scholarships since 1980 with 826 recipients, and has donated more than $400,000 to local nonprofits over the last 34 years.
The seven-member Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras Scholarship Committee, headed by Board Treasurer and MHUSD Trustee Ron Woolf, will award 50 scholarships to high school seniors based on a combination of academic performance, community and school service and need.
Scholarship recipients will be introduced at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 24 at the 35th annual Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras Festival at the Downtown Amphitheater stage. The festivities will include proclamations from city, county and state officials as well as gifts from the Board of Directors such as T-shirts from their respective college of choice and a festival souvenir T-shirt.
The Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras is a charitable, nonprofit organization, which every dollar above and beyond the cost of putting on the festival goes toward scholarships, mini grants and donations to school groups and clubs who participate in the festival.
For more scholarship information, contact the Mushroom Mardi Gras office at (408) 778-1786.
