The Brookdale Foundation’s 2017 Scholarship Ball raised a record $124,000 for student scholarships and support services at Brookdale Community College.
More than 260 community members came together to celebrate Brookdale Community College’s 50th anniversary and raise money for the school’s scholarship fund on June 9 at Eagle Oaks Golf and Country Club in Farmingdale.
The event included dinner, dancing, live entertainment and more than 100 auctioned prizes raising a total of $124,162.
“I could not imagine a more fitting tribute to Brookdale’s 50th anniversary than the outpouring of generosity and support we saw this year,” said Timothy Zeiss, executive director of the Brookdale Foundation.
According to Zeiss, the Brookdale Foundation’s “Building Minds, Building Futures” scholarship fund provided nearly $430,000 in scholarships and grants to more than 560 Brookdale students during this past academic year. Over the past fifteen years, the Brookdale Foundation has provided more than $4.4 million in scholarships and grants to nearly 7,000 students.
The foundation members also presented five awards to local education advocates, philanthropists, and government officials who have worked to support Brookdale since its founding in 1967.
Award winners included Bob and Joan Rechnitz, local philanthropists and founders of the Two River Theater; The Anabel Foundation, a Fair Haven-based charity supporting a variety of nonprofits across Monmouth County; and Zodiac Aerospace, a Wall Township-based world leader in aerospace equipment and a longtime supporter of Brookdale students and the foundation.
Founders’ Awards were also given out by the foundation to those who were instrumental in the development of Brookdale and its success from the beginning.
Honorees of these awards included the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders and the Northern Monmouth Branch of the American Association of University Women.
The 2017 scholarship ball was co-chaired by Carol Stillwell, of Stillwell-Hansen Inc., and foundation board trustees Candy Langan-Sattenspiel, of Sattenspiel Surgical Arts Pavilion, and Karen Escobedo of New Jersey Natural Gas.
“On behalf of my colleagues and the hundreds of students who will receive foundation scholarships this year, we express our sincerest thanks to everyone who helped make this event a historic success,” Zeiss said.
