The Melrose Messenger

City Scholarship Fund Launches Inaugural Application Window

By Ellen Putnam

This month, the Melrose City Scholarship Fund opened for its first-ever round of applications.

The Scholarship Fund is intended to support Melrose residents in education or training of any kind, and is specifically directed at individuals who have either made a meaningful contribution to the community, or intend to do so using the sponsored educational opportunity.

The Scholarship Fund was set up over 20 years ago, and accumulated approximately $13,000 in voluntary tax donations since then. However, the committee that administers it was only staffed for the first time last spring, as the city’s financial concerns led staff to investigate all possible avenues for funding education.

Melrose already has a robust nonprofit that provides scholarships for high school seniors - the Melrose High School (MHS) Permanent Scholarship Fund, known for its scholarships honoring prominent community members and the popular Sips and Scholarships fall fundraiser.

So when the City Scholarship Fund committee - made up of Melrose residents Christopher Gregg, Jackie Hoover, and John Orlandella, as well as Interim Deputy Superintendent Ken Kelley - started working to determine the criteria for awarding their scholarships, they wanted to create something different, that would not just duplicate the efforts of the MHS Permanent Scholarship Fund.

“The community focus is a pillar of the Melrose Little League scholarships,” which Orlandella had helped develop, Gregg explained. “So when John brought that up, it became central for us. We were thinking about the community, and we had an “Aha!” moment - why should it just be for kids? Why shouldn’t we support anyone who wants any kind of training - vocational, career training, higher education? It all falls into the same bucket of preparing people for their futures.”

So while the City Scholarship Fund has reached out to contacts at MHS and Northeast Metro Tech, they also aim to reach out to the wider community through Veterans Services, the Council on Aging, and the city’s website and social media channels.

The Scholarship Fund plans to start out small, aiming to give out a few awards of $1000 to $3000 each. Applications will be evaluated based primarily on need, and on the applicant’s dedication to the community, demonstrated through written personal statements as well as recommendations, which can be from teachers, city officials, or other community members.

Applicants are asked to talk, in their personal statements, about what the community means to them and how it has helped shape them into who they are. Applicants can also share if there could be a way that the educational opportunity they are applying for a scholarship to support will give back to and further strengthen the community.

While the Scholarship Committee’s first goal is to distribute awards from the funds that have been collected so far, their second, broader goal, is to develop community support to make the fund viable in the long-term.

This goal is complicated by the fact that, as a city entity, the Scholarship Fund cannot host fundraisers, and while committee members are allowed to share information about the fund with the public, they cannot advocate for or encourage donations.

But committee members hope to raise awareness of the Scholarship Fund and its goals within the wider community, so residents will make regular donations to the fund, either by checking the voluntary donation box on their taxes or by going on the city website. This would allow the City Scholarship Fund to support residents in further education for years to come.

“It hasn’t seemed real,” reflected Gregg. “We finally got all the pieces in place, and the process went live on March 23rd. We told ourselves - we’re building something out of nothing. Let’s just make it happen, and go from there.”

Interested applicants can submit materials through April 30th. The Scholarship Fund accepts donations year-round.

Posted April 9th, 2026