This year, we hit the $1 million mark for scholarships given to students in foster care

This year, the Kids to Love Foundation’s Annual Scholarship Awards Luncheon was a little different. 

The Foundation gave out 30 scholarships this year, surpassing $1 million in scholarships given over the last 19 years. 

This year the Foundation gave out scholarships to aspiring business owners, veterinarians, social workers, and students looking to get immediate trade certifications so they can start earning a living now.  

“Over the last 19 years our organization has worked to make education a top priority,” said Kids to Love Founder and CEO Lee Marshall. “In fact, it’s a theme in so many of our outreach programs that we do. We know education is the way that our kids transition from foster care out of poverty into success and prosperity.” 

Kids to Love’s Scholarships program has success story after success story. It’s full of stories like Sacred Huff’s. Sacred received a backpack from Kids to Love the first year she was in foster care, and she went on to become one of the Foundation’s scholarship recipients.  

“When I graduated from high school, I received a scholarship from Kids to Love,” she said back at her graduation in 2019. “The kinds of resources Kids to Love provided allowed me to do the things I wanted to do. With a lot of people that come from a background, it’s simply them not having the resources.” 

Sacred used that scholarship money to help get through the George Washington University Law School. At graduation in 2019, she received the Michael Dillon Cooley Award, which is given to students who share most generously of their time, compassion, and vitality to aid the intellectual and spiritual growth of fellow students. She also received the Justice Thurgood Marshall Civil Liberties Award, which is given to students who show dedication to the field of civil rights and civil liberties. 

“She’s a great representative of why scholarships matter,” said Blake D. Morant, a GW Law professor and former dean of the law school. 

Scholarships also mattered to Laila- Rose Hudson, who wanted to be an attorney from the age of 11. Another Kids to Love Scholarship recipient, she graduated last year from the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. She was surprised that Kids to Love continued to support her after she graduated college and moved on to law school. 

““I just was really shocked,” Laila-Rose said. “I didn’t think you would be able to do that or and it was such a nice surprise and a little bit — even though I had a very generous scholarship here — just a little bit less of a loan I had to take out.” 

Laila-Rose and Sacred are just two of our hundreds of scholarship stories. In the last 19 years, Kids to Love has supported children who have gone on to serve their communities as nurses, social workers, firefighters and much more. 

“We are so thankful that our community has come along beside us to support 1,000 scholarships,” Lee said. “That money is directly invested into changing lives, and we are so thankful we get to make a difference in the life of a child every day.”