2025 Pick My Post Fundraiser
It's tuba time again.
I use a different tuba photo every year for this. This year it's a photo of the Marching Illini sousaphones from their fundraiser where they run a 5k while wearing (and occasionally playing?) their sousaphones. Hopefully they're playing. I mean, if I'm running a 5k while wearing a sousaphone around my neck, it would be next to impossible to not do this to the slow runners:
The reason I talk about tubas at the beginning of May each year: this is when I do the fundraiser for my dad's scholarship. He played the tuba his whole life, and his love for music is the reason his friends established a scholarship in his name at my high school (also his high school). They wanted to establish a scholarship that would promote music education beyond high school, something my dad believed in with his whole heart (and tuba).
I write this same "here's how the scholarship began" section every year so maybe I'll just save some time and cut and paste from last year...
After my dad passed away in November of 1993, one of his friends approached my mom, my sister, and I with the idea of a music scholarship in his name at our high school (Highland HS in Highland, Illinois where I grew up). The scholarship was established in 1994 and I believe the first recipient was in May of 1995.
My dad enjoyed being an optometrist; my dad LOVED playing his tuba. Had his life followed a similar path as my own, he would have handed off his practice to my sister when she graduated optometry school in 1996 and then pursued his dream of playing the tuba full time. He was the manager of the local municipal band and he played in pit orchestras for regional theaters. And the year that he died, he had just established the "Helvetia Brass," a brass ensemble of musicians from the Metro-East.
My mom managed the scholarship for a long time. A few years ago, I took over for her. I had helped her with fundraisers in the past (like golf tournaments and such), but as the person running the fund now, I needed a better way to raise money on a yearly basis. That's when I came up with the Pick My Post idea.
It's something I had done from time to time on the site. I'd put a call out on Twitter for someone to "pick my post." You'd give me a topic, I'd write about it. So why not turn that into a fundraiser?
If the first recipient was in 1995, that means the scholarship has now reached 30 years! Crazy.
The first year that I did the Pick My Post fundraiser we raised $1,603. And last year we raised $2,285. The goal remains $1,500 (15 articles written for $100 each), but if more than 15 people want to donate, I'm willing to write more than 15 Pick My Post articles.
And because I want to be completely transparent, each of the last few years I've shown you the donation total and the check written to the high school (they have an account that maintains all scholarship funds). Last year's donation total:
And here's the check written for $2,285 to the high school last July:
The 2025 recipient will receive the scholarship on Monday night at the Honors Convocation at the high school. Which means it's time to do the fundraiser again. It's very simple: you donate $100 and I write any article you want. You can either put your question in the notes section of the donation page or you can send me an email (robert@illiniboard.com). Either way, whatever article you want to read, I'll write it.
(In the past I've said "or podcast episode you want to hear" but the two requests last year were very difficult to fulfill. So I'm simplifying it this year and just keeping it to articles you'd like to read.)
You don't have to be a subscriber to donate. All articles written for the fundraiser are unlocked and will be free to read. This is just a simple way for me to do what I do (put words on the page) and raise money for the scholarship fund.
Thanks in advance for donating. Here's the link to the donation page.
What article would you like for me to write?
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