The Bartlesville Community Foundation (BCF) exists to help everyone realize their philanthropic goals. BCF is able to accomplish this by offering many types of funds such as Donor Advised, Scholarship, and Designated Funds. These and several others provide avenues for long-term community investment.
Recently, the BCF was visited by a generous family interested in learning how they could work with the Foundation to affect racial equality. Current compelling calls to address racial inequality motivated them to respond in their own unique way. Starting a scholarship to benefit local Black students resulted from this inspiration.
Beginning January 1, 2021, the Wagon Wheel Scholarship Fund will award a $1,000 scholarship to a Black student who graduated from a high school in Nowata, Osage, or Washington Counties.
“Our family’s hope is that our contribution to this scholarship will help a student accomplish his or her dreams. We believe education is an important step in overcoming racial inequality and believe that educating one person will affect many in future generations” – said the fundholders, who choose to remain anonymous.
The name Wagon Wheel comes from a legend that people who worked and traveled on the Underground Railroad would use secret codes in the stitching of quilts. Certain quilt patterns served as guides along routes and from one safe place to the next. The Wagon Wheel pattern was one of twelve used in that form of communication.
The Wagon Wheel Scholarship requires essay questions from applicants that encourage the consideration of the tools or skills the students have mastered in an effort to succeed during their college career. Additionally, the application asks students to describe how they intend to use their education and field of study to strengthen the Black community.
The Bartlesville Community Foundation is proud to offer an avenue for the establishment of the Wagon Wheel Scholarship. Donations for this fund are being accepted via the Foundation website www.bartlesvillecf.org/donate/ or checks can be mailed to the Foundation office at
208 E. 4th St., Bartlesville, OK 74003.
