2015 Gaildene Hamilton Philanthropy Contest

12.21.15

We recently sponsored our fourth essay contest on philanthropy and we are thrilled to announce that the essay contest has a new name, The Gaildene Hamilton Youth Philanthropy Contest. Gaildene Hamilton is inextricably linked with Montgomery County and was an avid supporter of our community. Her daughter, Danielle Hamilton Birk, established a fund in her memory that will provide support to this contest.

Montgomery County 8th grade students were invited to participate in the essay contest. They were asked to imagine the following: “A local Philanthropist has died and left $2 million to be used for the purpose of improving people’s lives in Montgomery County. You have been asked by the estate to decide how the money will be spent." Judges looked at the submitted essays and chose an overall top winner and two runner-ups.

We are so pleased to announce that Southmont's Isabella Newton wrote the winning essay! She chose Half Way Home as the recipient of her $100 MCCF grant and Jamie Douglas was thrilled to accept the award on behalf of the agency. (photo above) Our second place winner was Delaney Gobel from Crawfordsville and she chose Pam's Promise as the recipient of her $50 MCCF grant. Betty Pollitt was happy to accept the award on their behalf. (photo here) Third place was Northridge student Jessica Dittmer who chose the Waveland/Brown Township Public Library as her $50 MCCF grant recipient; Rick Payne was glad to accept the award on behalf of the agency. (photo below) Congratulations to everyone!

We appreciate our local teachers who partner with us to make this contest possible and for all the students who participated. We are thankful to live in a community where we are surrounded with those who unselfishly give of their time and talents to make this a great place to live and work. To read the full story, please click here.