Donna Reed Scholarship Winners

For Eighteen years the friends and family of Donna Reed have been gathering in her hometown of Denison, Iowa. Each year more than 300 applicants compete for the Donna Reed Scholarships in the Performing Arts. These scholarships are to support talented kids who are about to enter college, or who seek to sustain an education in the performing arts which is already underway.

You can read more at http://www.donnareed.org

At the Donna Reed Festival (3rd week of June every year) we have a mix of college-level workshops, many for Credit, smaller scholarship competitions for local and regional talent, and the whole week is capped off with the Scholarship Finals in the modern Performing Arts Center at the Denison High School. What can you say about town of 7,500 whose water tower is painted blue and white and carries these words, "It's A Wonderful Life?"

The support of this vibrant small town and the State of Iowa has been superb over the last eighteen years, and our scholarship program has already helped several youngsters launch their professional career.

It was Donna Reed's hope that a festival in her name could help prepare kids for the rigors of a professional career, help with their training, and provide the kind of mature guidance necessary before jumping into a very hazardous career. We feel we are carrying on Donna's wishes, and we do so in her own hometown. Here are this year's Winners, and a past winner, Jered Grimes, who is already making waves on "Dance Fever" after a stunning appearance on last year's Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon.

Enjoy,
Paul Petersen
Board Member, Donna Reed Foundation
Founder, AMC