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Cordray directs $20,000 to scholarship program

Champion City Scholars gets settlement from lawsuit against local bingo operation.

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By Kelly Mori, Staff Writer Updated 10:22 PM Wednesday, March 10, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — The Champion City Scholars Program has received $20,000 from a lawsuit against a former nonprofit and its trustees.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray presented a check to the Clark State Foundation on Wednesday, March 10, on behalf of the 7-year-old program that works with local students who are at risk of not attending college because of financial or family barriers.

The funds came out of the attorney general’s lawsuit against the Springfield-based Central Ohio Association for Children’s Higher Education (COACHE) — a nonprofit established to use proceeds from bingo operations to provide scholarships for students at risk of not attending college, such as those in the Champion City Scholars Program.

Court records state that COACHE’s founders Steven and Robin Williams unjustly profited from the charitable organization — transferring the majority of proceeds to personal use.

The suit was settled Jan. 12, with the Williamses ordered to pay $20,000 to the attorney general’s office, which would have discretion over where the money would go.

“(Champion City Scholars) really caught our eye because it’s an intelligently designed program that is affecting children from the seventh grade and giving them incentive to achieve,” Cordray said. “We thought it was a very appropriate place for the money to land.”

On March 8, the foundation named its latest class of scholars — bringing the total to 350 students. The first group of scholars entered Clark State last fall.

Thanks to a perpetual endowment, they will be the first of many scholars, said Randy Kapp, Clark State Foundation Board chairman.

The foundation established the endowment with the intention of funding the program in perpetuity.

The $20,000 will go into the fund, which is less than $400,000 from its $3 million goal.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0347 or kmori@coxohio.com.

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