Dear Austin High School Alumnus,

The Austin High School Alumni Foundation was founded in October 1997 by a group of AHS Alumni who established the foundation to develop a strong partner relationship with Austin High School, its students, administrations and facility. The foundation encourages its members' active participation in Alumni Affairs and to become Visible in our commitment to Austin High School. The Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors consisting of AHS Alumni and is seeking to build our membership base to aid in expanding our services to the school and its student body.

We wanted to introduce you to the Foundation and bring you up to date on our accomplishments since our inception. Further, we want to extend to you an invitation to our Alumni Foundation family.

In 1997, the Foundation established our annual AHS Alumni Foundation Scholarship Scholarship Fund which is awarded each year to a very deserving AHS graduating senior who has met the selection criteria of academic excellence and/or service to both school and community. This scholarship is awarded annually in May at Senior Honors and Awards Night.

The funds for this Scholarship come from donations, both business and private, annual membership dues and our AHS Alumni Foundation Golf Tournament we hold each year in May at Cedar Ridge Golf Course in Decatur. In all, Over $35,000 in Scholarship money has been raised for the selected Alumni Foundation Scholarship Recipients through our various Foundation fundraising efforts.

In 2000, the foundation established the Becky Smith-Dishman Memorial Scholarship Fund in memory of 1978 AHS graduate Becky Smith-Dishman who lost her courageous battle with cancer in February 1999.  Becky worked as a nurse at Decatur General Hospital and in her honor, this scholarship is awarded each year to an AHS graduating senior who meets the selection criteria of academic excellence with plans to pursue an academic and professional career in nursing or in the field of medicine.

In September 2001, in a joint effort with the Decatur General Hospital Foundation, a fundraiser was held and some $23,000 was raised.  The proceeds were split between the Becky Smith Dishman Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Oncology Center at the Decatur General Hospital.  The scholarship portion of these funds, which the Foundation administers, has been awarded each year since 2002 at awards night at the school.

Since our inception, the Alumni Foundation has also administered various other memorial scholarship funds which were established much in the same manner as the Becky Smith Dishman Scholarship Fund.  The Foundation functioned as the medium for getting these scholarship funds to the students who applied for, and qualified for, these scholarship monies.

If you would like to see the Foundation establish and administer a scholarship fund in honor of a particular AHS graduation class, or in memory of a deceased AHS classmate, please contact us and we will work to make that happen.  We will use your membership dues, and the dues of your fellow classmates, to fund these scholarships.

Thank you for your support of the AHS Alumni Foundation.

John J. Sumerel, III
President - AHS Alumni Foundation