The Luis de Souza Pinto Memorial Scholarship

The Luis De Souza Pinto '02 Memorial Scholarship Endowment for the Men's Rugby Football Club at James Madison University has been created and can begin accepting donations. This is great news for anyone lucky enough to be in a financial situation where donating prior to year end makes a difference on your taxes. Background information is below, but I wanted to highlight the different ways to give to the scholarship - you can give online and via credit card. I know this has stopped people from giving in the past, so this should help encourage those of you too lazy to do anything other than take out their card and click a link.

Give via credit card:

Follow this link: www.jmu.edu/give

Click on "Click here to give online."

Fill out your information. Under the "gift designation", please put the following: "Fund Account No. 16-419 ". This is the account number for the endowment. Then designate the amount of money you would like to give under the "Other" box. The minimum gift is $20.

If you want to give via check, please send me an email and I'll get you the information and one required form.

I encourage everyone who is able to give. Your gift will directly benefit the team, as JMU expects to begin to award the scholarship in 2008. You will become a permanent noted donor to JMU, and the Alumni Association will receive a listing of everyone who has given, which helps us track who is still involved. I will be working with the school and some of the alumni who knew Luis to try to best promote the scholarship - this year is the 100th anniversary of JMU, and there will be a large gala in March, where scholarships will be awarded. I would like this scholarship, and the recipient, to be featured in the festivities. If anyone else has any ideas, please reach out via email to this email address, or call Freshman at 703.785.0703.

Scholarship information:

The scholarship is named in honor of Luis de Souza Pinto, a member of the mens rugby team from 98-02, and was killed in a jet skiing accident in 2004. Luis was two things - a dedicated, passionate rugby player who was the face of the team for 4 years, and an international student. The scholarship will benefit an international student who is or will be a mens rugby player.

We need to donate $25,000 in 5 years to initially fund a $1,000 scholarship. As more money is donated, the endowment will continue to grow, which will continue to grow the scholarship. Note that when the scholarship is set up and funded, there will be a mens rugby scholarship for as long as JMU is a university. To administer the scholarship, the Madison Rugby Alumni Association is being established. The Board will oversee the scholarship and be responsible for some of the other alumni goals. The Board will also put together an annual report, which will outline the progress of the team, short and long term goals, and who the scholarship has been awarded to. If you are interested in donating or becoming more involved, please email me and I'll let you know what the next steps are.