SUNBURY – A regional women’s group is looking for local veterans to take advantage of available financial help to help achieve career goals. Karen Gehers of the local SUN Soroptimists is treasurer of the larger, Soroptimists North American Region, and they are looking for veterans who can use the Ethel F. Lord Fellowship.
“Any female who is a veteran is eligible to apply. There is an application she would need to fill out and provide some references…if she’s attending any type of further education. It doesn’t need to be a four-year college. It can be a two-year college; it can be some type of trade school,” she said.
Gehers says the money can also be used for housing, transportation or child care needs for those veterans who are seeking further education.
The fellowship was first started in honor of the region’s former governor, Ethel Lord, “When Ethel passed away, a lot of money came into her deed from Soroptimists around the world and she wanted to help the region out with that. We renamed the scholarship that we had at the time to the Ethel F. Lord Scholarship. It’s always gone to specific areas in helping females.”
Gehers says programs like this are here for women veterans when they return from the military because they are at greater risk, “When they come back, they’re raising children, some of them are raising children on their own, and they may have had some type of trauma while in the military. Women can be at a greater risk than men, just because the woman is, normally in most families, the main caregiver for her children for her parents, so it’s just a little added extra stress on females.”
If you’d like to help out, head to soroptimistnar.org. You can hear more about the fellowship on the WKOK Podcast page, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
