Southwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees accepted a $25,000 scholarship donation from the Cass County Sheriff’s Office during its regularly scheduled meeting Aug. 10 on the college’s Dowagiac campus.

Cass County Sheriff Joseph Underwood Jr. presented the check from funds raised through the community policing golf outings he organizes.

According to Underwood, “Community Policing is not just limited to the sheriff’s office, but is also supported by the Cass County commissioners, businesses from all of Cass County, as well as individuals. That’s what makes the golf outing such a success.”

According to Sheriff Underwood, “Since establishing the Community Policing scholarship, we’ve given out over 128 scholarships of $500 each. The majority of the scholarships we try to award to students who will be attending Southwestern Michigan College. Each year, if we have eight scholarships, six go to students who will be attending SMC.”

In addition to the scholarships directly awarded to students by Cass County Community Policing, the organization has also used some of the golf outing proceeds to endow a scholarship at SMC.

This will insure that Community Policing scholarships will continue to be awarded forever.