To listen to Rod Carpenter and Mark Ernst on Spectrum:

Click Here

From Rod Carpenter:

Barb and I are excited to announce that Marathon XIII will be raising money for an Endowed Scholarship Fund for Wright State University Police Academy students from Mercer & Auglaize counties. The fund will be held at the Mercer County Civic Foundation in Celina. We don’t know how many will be awarded or how much at this time. That will be based on how much money is raised. Our goal is to raise a minimum of $100,000. We want this Fund to hand out scholarships as long as the Police Academy is at the Lake Campus. A Scholarship/s will be awarded next year in July of 2025. The name of the fund will be “WSU Police Academy Eternal Scholarships.”

Barb & I will have skin in the game, too, as we will do a 10% match on the first $50,000 contributed.

An Endowed Scholarship Fund is a fund that will be giving forever. We hope to raise $100,000 or more. The fund allows us to give away 3 ½ % of the fund per year. So if we raise $100,000 we can give out $3500 or more each year going forward. Based on past history the fund will continue to grow thus allowing more to be given out over time.

Barb & I believe the award winners should know where this money came from. So each winner will also be given the “Eternal Sheet” which is a list of every business, organization, and person that has given to make their scholarship possible. We hope that this will not only be inspiring to them but also encourage them to remain local post graduation. Mark Ernst, Program Director/Instructor, told me about 90% of the students remain in Mercer and Auglaize counties which is great news!

In a time when law enforcement isn’t a popular vocation to choose but is a very important one, we want to encourage kids to do so by offering them financial help. Sheriff Grey told me a couple years back he believes we are missing some very good kids for monetary reasons. We don’t want that to happen.

This is our 13th God driven benefit and this region and a few outside our region have raised $511,202.55 to date. Since our whole area benefits by getting great law enforcement people, we feel the $100,000+ goal is attainable. Praise the Lord!!

Rod will also be bicycling around the lake 3 times on September 28^th (aprox 72 miles). This will be in memory of Ethan Brunswick, Benjamin Ly, and Andrew “A.J. Taylor. A flag will be carried each lap for each person and presented to family.

We hope you will consider this Scholarship benefit. It truly benefits our whole area by keeping quality people in our area which is a plus. It also makes our region an even better place to live.

You can join us 3 ways 1) by making your checks out to the Mercer County Civic Foundation and send to Rod or Barb Carpenter at 2315 Eaglebrooke Circle Celina, OH 45822. MEMO LINE: Put “WSU Police.” 2) You may PayPal direct to us at paypal.me/boston2639. 3) You may Venmo to me at www.venmo.com/Rod-Carpenter-4 . Sending to us enables us to log your check to keep track of all money received. Your check will be handed over to the Foundation within ten days of receipt. 100% of all contributions go to the Scholarship Fund and is tax deductible.

You may direct questions to Rod at 419-236-9136 or carpenter@bright.net. If you know of anyone that may have interest in joining us in this Police Academy Scholarship Fundraiser please pass this info to them or have them contact Rod. Thank you so much for considering this 13th benefit.

Thankfully,

Rod & Barb Carpenter