The Lincoln County School District #2 Education Foundation announced a new Administrator along with changes to its scholarship fundraising timeline.

Board chairman Tim Hale says Deb Wolfley will serve in the role replacing Ashley Cranney who he says helped build up some momentum for its four core programs.

“We’re excited for this kind of new chapter at the foundation,” Hale said.

Wolfley says he has always been associated with students for a long time. He saw this as an opportunity to up that work to a new level, especially with high school seniors as part of the scholarship fundraiser.

“Especially when I learned about the other areas that the foundation works with,” Wolfley said of his desire for the role. “Saw some great things there.”

One big change he is implementing is changing the timeline to the scholarship fundraising efforts. He says this was always started at the beginning of the year for the most part. He will be looking to begin campaigns starting Monday.

“Talking with Ashley (Cranney) and down to the high school secretaries too, they said that they really need more time to get things put in place,” Wolfley said. “To have a really good, quality program.”

With it starting Monday personal and business pledges will be due on December 15th. Then they would like to have the funds to due by February 1, 2022. This way students can start applying March 1, 2022 for the scholarship.

“It takes a while for them (students) to get that application process going,” Wolfley said. “So, this gives them just a little bit more time to prepare for that.”

He says any business, person, civic entity can donate to the fundraiser. To start with the foundation will reach out to businesses that have donated in the past and it has a list of new ones it will reach out to as well. He says tax receipts will be given of the donation.

He also says it will highlight students who have seen success through this program. Hale added the end of the year is also a great time for businesses to donate as those owners can look at how they have done near the end of the year and plan donations accordingly.

“If the business has had a good year, sometimes you want to find some legitimate expenses to kind of lower your business income for tax purposes,” Hale said. “So, this is really a great opportunity for a business to start thinking starting in November to say ‘Hey do I want to sponsor a scholarship?'”

The foundation is a 501(c)(3) so, it does present itself as an opportunity for a business deduction. It has a general education sponsorship fund, but businesses can sponsor students who have a particular interest.

“We’ve had plenty of businesses that say ‘Hey, I really want an entrepreneur’,” Hale said. “Come to us and let us know what you’d like to do and we’ll work with you to put it together.”

He also thanked Star Valley for its contributions. It saw a 20% increase in funds last year.

“We all know what last year was like with COVID and just the kind of chaos that was going across our economy,” Hale said. “Our community is so supportive in so many ways.”

Wolfley says anyone interested in donating can do so on foundation’s website here. You can also call him at (307) 887-7537 to work out any questions or donation.