Scholarships and Summer Camp

photo by Gomer Pyles

2026 certainly began with a bang! We hope you have survived the bitter cold, snow and ice safely. Our landscaping service did a fantastic job of keeping our walks, stairs, and ramp cleared. We missed seeing our tutoring students while schools were closed. They arrived back with stories of sledding down hills into fences, horses escaping from barns, and slipping on the ice.

Scholarships

It is a new semester for high schools, with new teachers, new subjects, and for seniors, beginning to plan for after graduation. The Plains Community League offers scholarships to students who are planning on post-graduation training: an applicant must be a resident of The Plains community (ZIP Code 20198), graduate this spring or already have a high school diploma or GED, and have an acceptance to or be enrolled in a program at a college, university, or trade school. Example programs are associate or bachelor’s Degree, Certified Dental Technician, Trucker’s CDL, Licensed Cosmetologist. Applications are available in high school guidance offices, or can be downloaded from our website and mailed to us. We are especially interested in learning about applicants' volunteer experience.

Students who received scholarships last year and want to apply to renew their scholarships must provide us with the following information::

• An update on your academic progress this past school year, such as classes taken, grades, and a short narrative about key learning experiences.

• Inform us of your academic plans for the coming school year, where you will be attending, class load and any other things you’d like to tell us.

• Your current registered home address (i.e. your permanent residence, not school dorms, etc.)

• Confirm your current contact information, including email address, phone number, and mail address. This is how we will contact you with any questions, scholarship awards or other information.

Scholarship aplications  for the 2025-26 school year must be submitted by March 30th, 2026. Winners will be announced on April 13th.  The amount of the scholarships and number of winners will be determined by our available funds.

Summer Camp

Cold weather makes it hard to think about summer scheduling, but parents of elementary aged children need to begin making decisions about camps, vacations, travel, and more. The Plains Community League will be offering our highly praised, free summer program for lower income campers again this year. The John Page Turner House that provides the site for our camp limits the number of campers we can enroll. Last year we had over 75 children apply for only 25 spaces for our eight-week, full day camp, and we had to turn many away.This year we will offer two four-week sessions in order to provide a camp experience to twice as many children. Families should apply for the session that best fits their families' needs. Registration begins on March 20th and decisions on campers will be made by April 20th.

The Plains Community League is grateful to be able to support the youth in our community through the continued support of our donors, volunteers, and neighbors.