COBDEN — Reta Behm believes that any amount of money will help students who are getting a post-secondary education.
So, for the past 16 years, she has been the District G Bursary Chair for the Royal Canadian Legion. That takes in 63 branches, she said.
The bursary is available to anyone who has or had a family member in the Legion, she said. The bursary is $500 and can be applied for each year a student is going to school. Mature students can also apply, but they must have been out of school a minimum of four years, Ms. Behm said.
The forms are easy to fill out and self-explanatory, she said. To apply for a bursary, a student must have applied for OSAP (Ontario Student Assistance Program) or a student loan from a financial institute, she added.
She noted that while some students may not want to get OSAP or a student loan, they don’t have to accept once they have been approved for either.
Ms. Behm said the application deadline to the Ontario command, whose address is on the form, is the final Friday of March.
“There’s still time to apply for this year, you just have to send it in by priority post,” she said.
If this year’s deadline is missed, students can begin applying any time after August 1 for next year.
This bursary was started by the Ladies Auxiliary of the Royal Canadian Legion in 1958, Ms. Behm said.
“Money from an estate was left for a bursary,” she said.
And while it began with the auxiliary, many Legion branches donate towards the bursary as well, she added.
In 1999, Ms. Behm became the bursary committee chair and that first year received 200 applications.
“Between 1999 and 2015, there have been 3,038 applications approved and $1,488,950 given out in bursaries,” she said.
This is a low year, with only about 50 applications so far.
Ms. Behm said applications are sent to Ontario command and a committee reviews them. Those approved are then sent to her committee who reviews them. She said unless a student’s family income is very high, most bursaries are approved.
She encourages those applying to ensure all the information is on the form, because if it’s not, it will delay the application process.
Ms. Behm said this is money that students do not have to pay back.
“It’s a good program for them,” she said. “Tuition is so expensive and so are the books.”
She has received many letters from students who have received the bursary over the years.
“One student sent a letter back saying he was able to buy hamburger and not Spam,” she said.
A heart-touching letter was from a student going through school to became a doctor and was raised by his elderly grandmother.
“That $500 really made a difference,” he wrote. “It’s not much, but with the price of books it means a lot.”
Ms. Behm said people have no idea how much hardship there is for some students going to college or university.
