FORKS — Both new and old Forks High School graduates will benefit from last weekend’s benefit auction.
More than $59,000 was raised last weekend in the Quillayute Valley School District Scholarship Auction, all of which will go to help Forks High School graduates pay for higher education, said Marcia Bingham, a member of the Quillayute Valley Scholarship Committee and director of the Forks Chamber of Commerce.
“Every student who graduated from Forks High can apply for scholarships twice in their lifetime,” Bingham said.
How much is granted by the committee depends on a number of factors, including how much money the fund has, the need of the student and other factors, she said.
The number and amounts of scholarships vary each year, but among them are always two given to graduating seniors, who receive the largest scholarships, she said.
Those scholarships go to the students who represent the current senior class on the scholarship committee.
This year, those seniors are Jess Henry and Cutter Grahn, she said.
Bingham said the committee’s policy has been that the entire amount raised each year is used for the next year’s distribution.
In the past 47 years since the scholarship fund began, more than $1 million has been distributed to students and former students so they can have a chance to chase whatever higher education aspirations they can dream up, she said.
Some of the money for the scholarship fund was raised as cash donations, while the rest of the revenue came from the auctioning of 921 items.
Donations this year ranged from a former Forks Police Department motorcycle to local art and cords of firewood.
A 7-foot-tall wooden replica of the Eiffel Tower, complete with a clock, found its way back to the Forks High School Library.
The tower was donated to the school by auction winners Brenda King and Sarah Decker.
More than $11,000 of the total was from the sale of donated items from the Olympic Corrections Center.
Inmates created wood and metal sculptures and other objects for the auction while participating in vocational training programs.
“We have some very talented inmates,” said OCC Superintendent John Aldana.
One of the hits of the auction was a series of metal wall-hangings featuring wolves, eagles, bears and other Pacific Northwest themes.
A hand-built cedar hope chest was among the highest bids for OCC items, which brought in a high bid of $500.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
