LUSK – The Niobrara County Homemakers held their annual scholarship luncheon on Wednesday, March 24, at the Niobrara County fairgrounds in Lusk.

The luncheon is an annual event which has been held every year since 2007 to help raise money for the Niobrara homemakers scholarship, which is given to three different people each May.

“We started doing the luncheon in 2007, but it took us a few years to raise enough money to give out the first two scholarships in 2009,” said Claudia Swanson, Niobrara County Homemakers treasurer. 

Initially, the Homemakers gave out two scholarships per year. One would be for a traditional student and the other a non-traditional student, but now they give out two traditional scholarships and one non-traditional scholarship.

A traditional student is a recent high school graduate who is looking to further their education. A non-traditional student is someone who is older than the average student and is looking to go back to school who has been out for a while or going for something like their master’s degree.

“We don’t get a lot of the non-traditional applications, but when we don’t, we do another traditional scholarship,” Swanson said. “We give away $1,500 in a year and each recipient receives $500.”

Applications for the scholarship are due by April 1. The Homemakers will then judge the applications and announce the recipients of the scholarships at the Spring Tea event held in May.

“We’re going to give them the scholarship in the summer before they go to school,” Swanson said. “We used to require the kids to send us a transcript from their first semester, but due to COVID this year, we are just giving them the money because we figure they need it sooner.”

Tickets to the event were $10 per person and free for children 12 years old and under. Included with the ticket was the choice between three different homemade soup options, a salad, multiple different dessert options and multiple beverage choices.