Nicholls’ annual A+ Scholars Extravaganza Raises $20,000

Nicholls State University hosted its annual Scholar A+ Scholarship Extravaganza last Wednesday in the Cotillion Ballroom of the Bollinger Memorial Student Union, after a one-year hiatus, raising over $20,000.

The fundraiser featured a wine and food tasting night to raise money to fund scholarship awards to students.

More than 20 vendors donated food and drinks for the guests and the event sold 350 tickets.

“We are going to be very transparent because at the end of the day, it’s about the students and how we can help them to grow on a foundation of education,” Monique Crochet, executive director of alumni and external affairs and co-chair of the fundraiser, said.

In the past, the Nicholls Foundation used all of the proceeds from the fundraiser to award scholarships to select students.

This year, administrators are looking for new ways in which to apply the money to benefit more students.

One of the alternatives announced at the banquet was to use contributions to help Nicholls students fill the gap not covered by TOPS and financial aid.

Another idea is to allocate the money to a program or department in which more than a few students could benefit from the contributions instead of the money going to individual students.

“It’s not like the money is going to sit somewhere for five or six years,” Crochet said. “We don’t have a date or an exact format yet but we will be transparent.”
Over the past 19 years the event has been held, it has raised more than $700,000 for students.

Crochet said that the way the University scholarships are presently formatted is each department offers up $500, and each respective department would then choose to whom the scholarship would go.

Neil Weaver, director in the office of development and overseer of the Nicholls Foundation, said he would like to see the money come from everyone and benefit everyone.
“None of it would have been possible without our headline and table sponsors,” Crochet said.

The fundraiser had two headline sponsors, Mark Plaisance, attorney at law, and Desley Plaisance, director of graduate studies.

Among the table sponsors were Ground Pati of Houma, First American Bank and Trust, Henry and Kim Lafont, People’s Drug Store and Thibodaux Regional Medical Center.

Crochet said coordinators of the fundraiser were pleased with the amount of the donation, especially because of the status of Louisiana’s economy right now.

“People want to know where their money is going,” Crochet said. “If you give me money and tell me you want to plant a tree, I will plant it and put a plaque by it.”

Crochet said that hopefully next year they would be able to feature students in the extravaganza, who the contributions have helped.

The University did not host this particular fundraiser last year because of time constraint within the fall schedule. Crochet said donors missed the event so they felt compelled to bring it back.

“It’s a fun event, more like a social than anything, to show donors all the good things Nicholls has going on,” Crochet said.