Sheblon “Pete” Cotten

Memorial Scholarship Fund

 

The Original Mississippi Good Sam Scholarship Fund was created in January 2004 during Pete Cotten’s tenure as Director of the Mississippi Good Sam organization.  Later, the name was changed to the “Sheblon “Pete” Cotten Memorial Fund” as directed by the Mississippi Good Sam State Committee in January of 2008.  Pete was a retired school teacher and knew the value and importance of a good education to young people.   Because he and his wife, Gloria Jane, had raised and put their own three children through college, he realized how costly the burden could be to do so.  Pete was very dedicated to the folks in the Mississippi Good Sam organization and he strived to help these folks provide a good education for their children and grandchildren.  As a result, the scholarship fund was born.

 

The original monies were provided by the sale of cookbooks.  The idea came after a January meeting in which members of the Good Sams had provided food for one of the meals.  Pete and Gloria Jane were driving home discussing how exceptional the food was and what wonderful cooks they had in Mississippi Good Sams.  A statement was made that those recipes should be collected, put into a cookbook and sold.  With the help of Grace Dillon, another Good Samer, they collected over 700 recipes and did just that!  The sale of the cookbook provided the monies for the scholarship’s first funding.  Now the funds to keep this wonderful program going come from the sale of raffle tickets sold at the Spring and Fall Samborees.

 

Pete Cotten devoted himself to education; to both young people and the folks of Mississippi Good Sams.  He believed strongly in the establishment of the scholarship fund to enable qualifying students graduating from high school to receive the sum of $1,000.00 for the fund for their use when attending a college or junior college of their choice.  As a result, the program has helped numerous students better themselves in becoming the “FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY”.

***************************************************

A chairperson for the committee will be appointed by the Mississippi Good Sam State Director that oversees the process of selecting the candidate(s).  The Chairperson along with two (2) other committee members selected by the chair will constitute the review committee and select the winner(s).  In 2012 Mississippi is proud to announce that two (2) $1,000.00 grants will be formally presented at the Fall Samboree.  The deadline to have ALL application materials to Mrs. Jan Dyer is April 23, 2012.  We wish all applicants the very best in this process.  If you have questions, please contact Mrs. Dyer at 601.798.5551.  You may also e-mail, but DO NOT TOTALLY RELY on the e-mail system.

 

For more detailed information on the operating procedure of the scholarship fund see the “Memorial Fund Operating Procedure”