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Five women receive scholarships to participate in outdoors program

From the NC Wildlife Resource Commission

Published: April 21, 2009

Five women have received scholarships enabling them to participate in Becoming an Outdoors-Woman programs this year.

Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BOW) is an international program of hands-on learning and outdoors experience, offered in North Carolina by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Participation is open to women ages 18 and older.

The scholarships were made possible by the Mel Porter BOW Scholarship Fund, which is supported through donations and purchases of participants and instructors. Mel Porter was a longtime and dedicated wildlife educator with N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

"We held our first silent auction last year at the BOW program at Camp Cheerio and raised just over $1,300," said BB Gillen, outdoors skills coordinator. "We asked the ladies and instructors to donate new or used items that pertained to women and the outdoors. We then held the silent auction where both participants and instructors could place their bids for the items. It was a huge success."

Those receiving scholarships include: a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patient; a recently unemployed woman; a wife whose husband is on his third deployment to Iraq; a primary caregiver for an Alzheimer's patient; and an 87-year old. None would have been able to attend BOW programs without the partial financial help.

For more information on BOW, contact Gillen at (919) 218-3638 or bb.gillen@ncwildlife.org.