While planning last year’s Harvest Ball, the committee suggested that the proceeds from the event be used to assist young people from our parish who are beginning their college careers. With that in mind, we are establishing “The Seedling Award” (Harvest Ball, Rose of Germaine, new beginning).  Any member of our St. Germaine Parish family who is starting college is eligible to apply for this award regardless of where they attended elementary or high school. The award is not a scholarship or grant; it is not based on financial need, or academic or athletic accomplishments. It is a gift from the people of St. Germaine to young people who have shown their appreciation for belonging to our parish family. The money can be used for books or other academic expenses.
    The recipients will be selected by an independent group of parish members based on essays submitted with the applications. The identity of the students submitting the essays will be withheld from the judges until after the selection is made. The number and amount of the awards will be determined by the amount raised by each year’s Harvest Ball. This year seven awards of $1,000.00 each are available. The application process closed on October 3, 2008 and the essays were submitted to the judges.
Seven essays were chosen by a majority of the judges. The names of the applicants were matched to the essays with the following results. The winners of the 2008 St. Germaine Seedling Award (in alphabetical order) are:

Katelynn Bragg attending St. Xavier University
Kelly Dearth attending Moraine Valley Community College
Daniel Finn attending Western Michigan University
Taylor Fionda attending  Moraine Valley Community College/Monmouth University
Brigitte Fleckenstein attending Iowa State University
Frances Kobiernicki attending University of Chicago
Lauren Majka attending Eastern Illinois University

Congratulations to this year's winners.
We thank everyone who participated in this process and especially those who supported the Harvest Ball which makes this award possible.