Scholarship Week One: More Than a Scholarship
Over the past months, I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time looking through the history of the McDougall United Church Scholarship. It’s a substantial list of names, years, family connections, and stories stretching back across generations of this community.
Honestly, it has been deeply moving.
Some of the names are familiar. Some belong to people who are still active in the life of this church. Others are connected to families whose roots at McDougall go back decades. Some recipients likely still live nearby. Others are now be scattered across the country or around the world.
And some of those names belong to young people who once sat in youth group circles when I was McDougall’s youth minister… what now feels like a lifetime ago.
Sitting with this history, I find myself remembering conversations, retreats, laughter, hard seasons, big questions about life and faith, and all the hopes people carried for the future. It also left me reflecting on just how quickly time moves. (Yes, even I feel old!) Young people become adults. Students become parents. Lives unfold in ways none of us can fully predict.
And woven through all of it is this quiet but powerful truth: this congregation chose to invest in them … in their dreams … in their future … in OUR future.
That is what I find so meaningful about the McDougall Scholarship. It has never simply been about financial assistance. It has always been one expression of a community saying: your life matters to us, and we want to help you take your next steps forward.
What makes it even more special is the deeply intergenerational nature of the scholarship itself. Recipients are connected to McDougall families; parents, grandparents, siblings, and loved ones whose lives have shaped this church community over many years. In many ways, the scholarship becomes part of a much larger story about belonging, encouragement, and carrying our community forward from one generation to the next.
As we look toward the future, I believe we have an opportunity to continue strengthening and growing this scholarship for the generations still to come. We know that education continues to open doors, create possibilities, and shape lives in ways we may never fully see. In a very practical sense, a scholarship may help pay for tuition or books, but it also communicates something deeper: that this community believes in someone’s potential and wants to stand alongside them as they move forward.
That matters. Trust me.
If you feel called to support the McDougall United Church Scholarship Fund, I invite you to do so. Every gift becomes part of a legacy that has already shaped many lives and will continue encouraging future students in the years ahead.
And perhaps just as importantly, this is also an opportunity to celebrate the many people and families who remain part of McDougall’s unfolding story. It’s a story built, generation by generation, through acts of care, encouragement, generosity, and hope.
Withy gratitude,
Bill
You can learn more about the McDougall Scholarship here.