Classes of the ‘50s

The Chet Rhodes family Chehalis Area Fund, established at the Community Foundation of South Puget Sounding Olympia, offered to match scholarship funds raised by the Classes of the Fifties, which was led by the Class of ‘55. Some of those classes have joined in the group.

This is our 13th year of awarding scholarships. This year we are giving 9 current graduates $1500.00 each, and 14 previous graduates $1500.00 each. A total of $34,500.00. Since 2010, we have given $$229,500.00 to 163 students.

In addition to the awards given to these students, Barbara Sommer Feigin, class of ‘55, is donating her book, My American Dream, which recounts the terrifying, death-defying escape her Jewish father, her mother, and she, at age two-and-a-half, made from Nazi Germany in July of 1940 at the onset of World War II. It also tells her story of climbing the corporate ladder, when women were not given the opportunities that men had. Barbara became a very successful executive blazing a trail for those who came behind her.