Two Midwestern education organizations have initiatedstarted a post-secondary scholarship fund to benefit family members of victims in the World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist attacks.
Lumina, an Indianapolis-based private foundation, granted $3 million to the Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of America, a Minneapolis-based non-profit organization, for the creation of the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund.
"We're Americans and like all Americans we're touched by the tragic events of Sept. 11," Lumina communications director Sara Murray-Plumer said. "Post-secondary education, our focus, opens the door to a great future and is a great way to help families, devastated by these events."
The scholarship will benefit children and spouses of the victims, including airplane crew and passengers, World Trade Center and Pentagon employees, visitors and relief workers. The fund also will include benefits for the families of firemen and police officers killed in the line of duty.
Although Lumina will match each dollar donated to the fund, the fund's Web site projects the need for "tens of millions of dollars to provide the type of financial assistance that will be necessary to ensure post-secondary access to the families."
CSFA anticipates starting distribution of the fund in January 2002.
Although Lumina typically does not sponsor scholarships, Murray-Plumer said the company believed the cause was exceptional and one they could fulfill.
Carol Van Dyke, director of communications at CSFA, cited the foundation's mission in explaining its decision to manage the fund.
"Providing scholarships and educational support has been CSFA's mission since it was created," Van Dyke said. "Providing scholarship assistance for victims' families was a natural offshoot"
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