St. John's largest community initiative is this incredible scholarship program.  Since 1983, we have contributed to and managed these Community Scholarships – they were a signature part of our Capital Campaign in 2006.  People from the church and the island community contributed generously.  The result is a truly remarkable scholarship program providing assistance for up to six years of higher education – scholarships for every Fishers Island student graduating high school including scholarships for magnet students from off-island, and scholarships for Fisher Island residents attending high school on the mainland.  Island School graduates receive scholarship for four years of collegiate study and up to two years of graduate study.  There are few scholarships that will make that type of long term commitment. 

 

This is St. John’s most significant outreach.  We stand behind our commitment to the youth of the island, and each year, whether the draw from this fund covers the scholarship or not, the vestry of our Church steps forward to cover the difference so that we fulfill this promise and hope for the future.  Through our outreach, St. John’s cares for the people who were here, who are here, and who will be here in the future.  God’s time includes the past, the present, and the future, and our hope and our prayer is to honor and cherish and love the things that exist in God’s time the best we can.  These scholarships are one way of doing that.  They represent the commitment of the entire island and go beyond St. John’s Church.