Holiday giving

The whole point of today's blog is really just to share the following with you so that when I look at my gchat friends I can see this message repeated in every single status message:

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Have your holiday shopping support PHUL, use this link and the scholarship gets 5% of your order http://tinyurl.com/PHUL-Amazon
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Now that that's done with, feel free to read up a little more if you so desire, or skip down to the bottom for ways to help (PLENTY of them pass the "I'm a poor college student and don't have any money..." test, so go ahead, check them out.)

Many of you are probably aware of the PHUL Scholarship. For those who are not, the PHUL Scholarship was established in 2003, it is currently awarded annually to one student-athlete who will receive $1,000 per year for up to four years. Winners are selected from a pool of applicants who have participated in the spring PHUL season and show outstanding playing ability, high school academics and Ultimate community service. Only those students attending a school in the Greater Pittsburgh Area are eligible. The scholarship is also badly in need of a new website... but that's another subject.

I have listed the other (United States, collegiate) Ultimate scholarships offered that I know of. This information is almost all from Google searches so it may have inaccuracies and most likely some omissions. Please feel free to drop me a line if you know of more or have corrections.

CU (Colorado University - Open) - Est. 2001, $1,000? $3,000? to an incoming Freshman (first year of eligibility). Alumni funded. (info)
Cornell - Open - Est. 2003 (info) Alumni funded. $1,000 - $2,500 over X years?
Warren Wilson Ultimate Team? - Est. 2003? (info). First I'd ever heard of this, not sure if it happened. $1,000/yr for 5 players.

The PHUL Scholarship is unique in that it is the only community-funded, community-based and endowed scholarship for college Ultimate players. To my knowledge, all other college Ultimate scholarships are alumni funded, are for one specific team and are paid yearly from an alumnus' checkbook as opposed to being paid as interest on a sustainable endowment.

For example of how an endowed scholarship works:

$100,000 is raised and housed in an account at the Pittsburgh Foundation. Once a year this fund earns 4% interest (or hopefully more), and that $4,000 ($100,000*0.04) is given out in scholarships. Thus the principle ($100,000) is not touched and is free to grow with new donations. The scholarship can continue to pay out indefinitely with no additional financial support.

The method described above is the PHUL Scholarship, and our goal is to reach that $100,000 within 10 years of the start of the endowment (est. 2005). To date the endowment is at ~$40,000.

So what can you do to help support this effort? Well there are a few simple ways:

1.) Give money

• Facebook details
• Drop off cash/check at 165 Morewood Ave, 15213 (checks made out to PHUL or Darren Shultz).
  

2.) Shop

• Have your holiday shopping support PHUL, use this link and the scholarship gets 5% of your order http://tinyurl.com/PHUL-Amazon details of how this works here.
  

3.) Tell a friend

• Pass on the facebook link from above
  
  
• Put this message"Have your holiday shopping support PHUL, use this link and the scholarship gets 5% of your order http://tinyurl.com/PHUL-Amazon" in your gchat/AIM/facebook/etc. status. Or e-mail it to friends/family who use amazon.

4.) Play Ultimate

• First Night of Flight gives donations to the scholarship when PHUL players sign up (see this post)
• PHUL runs the SAY WHUT outdoor Hat tournament on Dec. 20th (that's less than 2 weeks away) where the profits benefit the scholarship.

5.) Play pool

• We have a pool table in my basement. Play me in a game. If I win you donate $1 to the scholarship (we have a jar in the house). If you win, I'll pay you $1.