Full text of Hodge thank you and testimonial email:
From: <Sandra Hodge>
Sent:
To: Krogh, David
Subject: RE: … scholarships
Hi, David!
It was again a
pleasure to receive an e-mail from you! …
You are so kind
to ask about Sarah's welfare. She is having such a great time at BYU -- thanks
to the Dollars-for-Scholars program! The whole experience is quite
extraordinary. Originally Sarah wanted to go to BYU. I was actually hoping that
she would attend UCSB. Sarah was immediately accepted into UCSB and turned in
the papers to go there. BYU would only accept her if she went to the summer session
first. If she didn't go to the summer session, they would not take her for the
fall session. As you might imagine, we were in a financial dilemma. If Sarah
chose to go to BYU's summer program so she could
attend in the fall, she wouldn't be able to work and we would have to come up
with the money to pay for housing, tuition, etc. right then. It was a double
whammy -- no income from Sarah and more outgo for us. UCSB, on the other hand,
already accepted her for the fall term, so she could go ahead and work the
summer, and we had the summer to secure additional funds. Financially, it was
to our benefit to have her go to UCSB in the fall.
However, Sarah
really had her heart set on going to BYU, not UCSB. So my husband Dave and I
thought, "Well, the money will come from somewhere. We'll figure it
somehow." So we told her to go ahead and sign up and we'd just go forward
on faith. The cost for the summer session and housing was around $1400. Believe
it or not, the total she received from scholarships was about $1400. I can
still remember her coming home after school about to burst open with excitement
and waving a check from your organization for $500. She proceeded to say that
she went to the Senior Assembly that morning and the Dollars for Scholars had a
little bit of money left over. Then they called her name as the recipient. She
was stunned. She then said that the scholarship you gave her was the only
scholarship given out that morning since all the others were given out the
night before. Needless to say, our mouths just dropped open. We just looked
upward and said, "Wow! Thanks!" It was such an incredible spiritual
experience for us! Also, I thought that was so sweet that both of your
daughters, Kristin and Lauren, were cheering for Sarah. I can't wait to let
Sarah know what great support she had. I think knowing of their feelings will
mean a tremendous amount to her. That is so extra special!
So, yes, you can
call on us to help with the Dollar for Scholars program! We were so incredibly
blessed by the generosity of those other contributors at a point in our lives
when we needed it, and it is duly our opportunity now to give back! So, with
all my heart, I thank you and the many others who made it possible for Sarah to
attend BYU this fall! She was just home for a few days and left today to begin
the fall term. She even has a part-time job on campus working for Subway
Sandwiches!
… I can't thank
you and the other Dollars-for-Scholars contributors enough for the financial help.
And even more importantly, I know Sarah will be deeply touched by the emotional
support of Kristin and Lauren. The more I learn about the different facets of
the entire selection process, the more amazed I am at how things work out. This
scholarship will definitely be etched upon our hearts as an incredible
spiritual experience for us. We have felt so blessed! Our family thanks you and
the others with all of our hearts!
Your forever friends and fans,
Sandra & Sarah
& the rest of the Hodge Family
From: Krogh, David
Sent:
To: <Sandra Hodge>
Subject: RE: … scholarships
Hi Sandra,
…it truly is a
small world. How is Sarah doing? I assume that she (and you) decided for her to
go to BYU (?) FYI, I am involved with Hilltop High School Dollars for Scholars,
and had the pleasure of handing out scholarships to Sarah and others at the
awards assembly last June. I sent an email to each of the students letting them
know, and hopefully she told you about it, but FYI, in case, go
look at www.geocities.com/hhsdfs/2003_recipients and at our related
website homepage and other web pages. So, Sarah is one of our founding year
scholarship recipients that we plan to hold up as examples of how we would like
to help other students during our upcoming second year. Watch out! Now that I
know who you are, I may contact you again someday regarding Hilltop High School
Dollars for Scholars.
… let me say just one more thing: when we were considering
scholarship recipients, and had only a certain amount of money, and we picked
who the recipients were going to be, initially they did NOT include Sarah. I so
much wanted my daughter Kristin, who is also involved with HHSDFS, to be in
those recipient deliberations, but she couldn't make it that day. So, when I
told her and my other daughter Lauren the names of who we had picked to receive
scholarships, and who we didn't have enough money to help, both of them, when
they heard that Sarah was on the "Not" list, made exclamations that
they were very disappointed that we hadn't picked Sarah, and that she was such
a good student and a nice person that we should have picked her. Well, that
made me feel bad, and I even said to Kristin, "that's
why I wanted you at the meeting!" HOWEVER, that also sure made it easy to
decide who would be the first person that we would pick when we received some
late last minute donations and did end up having a little bit more to give out.
So, anyway, good job Mom! And I wish Sarah every success at college.
Sincerely yours,
David