Townhall.com’s gold partner Freedom Alliance is sponsoring the 2007 Hannity Freedom Concerts all across America this summer.
Greg Stamps, a native Texan and a longtime member of the Townhall.com team, represented Townhall at the August 14 concert and sat down with Freedom Alliance president Tom Kilgannon at the Texas event. They discussed all aspects of the concert, but the description of the scholarship fund stood out most to me when Greg recalled the interview. After interviewing Tom, here is Greg's brief description of the fund:
He told me that Freedom Alliance will provide $500K+ this year for 115-120 scholarships for Gold Star children and children of permanently disabled or POW/MIA soldiers. He said they've given out $1.6+ million in scholarships since the inception of the fund. They now have a $10 million scholarship trust.
(You can also read more about the scholarship here and here.)
Tom also told Greg that most of the fallen soldiers' children are currently between 2 and 8 years old and that Freedom Alliance seeks to provide help where there is the greatest financial need: college tuition. For this reason, most of the funds will be available in 10 to 15 years when the kids head to universities. It’s also important to note that this is no free pass; the scholarship recipients are expected to maintain good grades in order to renew their scholarship each year.
Greg had the chance to meet Freedom Alliance scholarship recipient Megan Walley of Palestine, TX. She’s about to graduate from Texas A&M with a degree in Business and Marketing. Her dad is a disabled Vietnam veteran. Here’s a picture of her with some Freedom Alliance staff members: