Brainerd, Minn. – Passionate donors who care deeply about education and the next generation have made scholarships a priority across the Brainerd Lakes Area. These generous individuals, families, and businesses honor loved ones, raise funds, and invest their time, energy, and financial resources to support local students—many of whom they have never even met. This type of giving represents the very heart of generosity: helping others in their pursuit of education and opportunity.
The Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation (BLACF) is proud to host scholarship funds that are invested for growth and designed to give donors flexibility in the ways they support students. Through these funds, local students are given meaningful opportunities to pursue educational opportunities.
For the 2025–2026 academic year, the following students received scholarships:
- Morgan Carey (Brainerd High School) – $1,000, Garrison Area Scholarship Fund
- Autumn Schiller (Brainerd High School) – $1,000, Garrison Area Scholarship Fund
- Austin Fonda (Crosby-Ironton High School) – $1,000, Garrison Area Scholarship Fund
- Kelsey Bergem (Pine River High School) – $1,000, Bryce Mink Memorial Scholarship Fund
- Reese Glynn (Brainerd High School) – $2,000, Cecelia E. Granos Memorial Scholarship Fund
- Corah Meschke (Walker-Hackensack-Akeley High School) – $1,500, Virginia M. Twetten Scholarship Fund
- Brooklyn Orazem (Onamia High School) – $4,000, General John and Avis Vessey Math, Science & Engineering Fund
- Natalie Coffman (Onamia High School) – $1,000, Dr. “Eddy” Silker Scholarship Fund
- Maxwell Patterson (Onamia High School) – $1,000, Dr. “Eddy” Silker Scholarship Fund
- Avery Morrison (Walker-Hackensack-Akeley High School) – $1,500, Ed Sauer Memorial Scholarship Fund
In addition, the Bernick’s Family Foundation —a fundholder with our sister foundation, the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, part of the CommunityGiving network—awarded a scholarship to local student, Autumn Schiller. While these funds are not directly held at BLACF, the Foundation is grateful to Bernick’s for investing in the educational goals of area students and providing resources that help them pursue higher education.
BLACF is also honored to host scholarship funds on behalf of the Brainerd Public Schools Foundation (BPSF). Thanks to the leadership of Jessica Gangl and the BPSF board, more than $225,000 in scholarships were awarded to Brainerd High School students this past May. BLACF is proud to partner with BPSF in ensuring these opportunities are available to local graduates.
Across the region, 134 scholarships totaling support for 357 students were awarded this year, made possible by the generosity of donors working with BLACF and other partner foundations in the CommunityGiving network.
“By funding scholarships, donors send a clear message: education matters, and every student deserves the chance to succeed,” said Terri Foster, Executive Director of the Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation. “Their generosity often comes at great personal sacrifice—investing in youth they may never meet. That kind of giving is the epitome of generosity and a powerful example of what it means to give back locally.”
The Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation (BLACF) attracts and administers charitable funds for the benefit of the local Brainerd area. Since 1998, BLACF has grown to over $25.2 million in assets and awarded over $11.4 million in grants to nonprofits. The BLACF is governed by a local board of directors and is a partner of CommunityGiving, which is a collaborative of community foundations united under a single framework to create efficiencies that maximize the impact of our donors. Collectively, CommunityGiving administers over 1,300 funds totaling over $283 million in assets. Learn more at CommunityGiving.org/Brainerd.