Scholarship to be awarded for fall semester – big thanks to Operation Second Chance!

Greetings all,

February was a great month for fundraising – in addition to many generous donations from people all over the country, the scholarship fund received a major contribution from Operation Second Chance: $5,000 not only this year, but each year for the next five.  That’s a total contribution of $25,000 through 2021!  You can read Operation Second Chance’s press release about their contribution here.

Operation Second Chance provides support for the soldiers and marines while they recover at military hospitals and assists them when they transition either back to duty or back to civilian life. Operation Second Chance sent Wade on a retreat when he was healing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and later brought Wade in to help host other wounded veterans on retreats to Montana.  Operation Second Chance was a major resource for Wade’s recovery, and offered him opportunity to bond with other veterans with similar experience.  You can learn more about Operation Second Chance on their website, operationsecondchance.org.

Overall, Operation Second Chance has filled much of the remaining gap to reach the initial fundraising goal of $25,000.  The fund currently stands at $22,320 – 90 percent of the way there!

What this means is the fund will be making its first award to a veteran or a military family member this fall.  The details on the value of the award and the process of application and selection are still in development, but money will be put to use in 2016.  My family and Montana State University are honored by the community’s generosity.

We have made good progress, but this is only the beginning.  With your help, we can give those who have sacrificed so much for all of us one of life’s most valuable gifts: a quality education.  Please consider a one-time or ongoing donation to the Wade Christiansen Purple Heart Scholarship Fund.  100 percent of your contribution is federally tax-deductible and 100 percent of your contribution supports education for veterans and military families right here in beautiful Bozeman, Montana.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project so far.  Much more to come.

-Matt