AUSTIN, Texas—The Sembradores de Amistad Valentine’s Day Ball 2002, supporting scholarship endowments for underprivileged college students at The University of Texas at Austin and three other central Texas educational institutions, will be held at 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 9 at the Omni South Park Hotel in Austin.
Dr. Judith Guiterrez Loredo, dean of academic affairs at Huston-Tillotson College in Austin, will be the keynote speaker for the 5:45 p.m. event. Austin Mayor Gus Garcia will present the awards.
The Valentine’s Day Ball, a formal dinner and dance that includes a silent auction, is open to the public. Seating is limited to about 400 people and tickets for the event cannot be purchased at the door. Tickets cost $100 a couple. Sponsor tables are available at $2,000 for a gold corporate table and $1,250 for a silver corporate table. For reservations, contact Endowments Committee Chairman Hilbert R. Maldonado at (512) 733-7775.
Sembradores gala proceeds go toward endowment funds at Concordia University at Austin, Huston-Tillotson College, St. Edwards University and The University of Texas at Austin. Only the interest is used for scholarship awards. Proceeds from benefit events continue to build the principal so future awards will be secure and adequate regardless of economic conditions, said Maldonado, the organization’s president-elect.
Nearly 400 people attended the 2001 fund-raising event. Since the Austin chapter of Sembradores was founded in 1994, the organization has raised $160,000 for scholarship endowments.
Roberto Miranda, M.D., president of the Austin chapter of Sembradores de Amistad, said preference for scholarships are given to central Texas students who are among the first generation of their families to attend college and who qualify as being “financially and educationally disadvantaged.” He said the name of the international non-profit organization, which has its headquarters in Monterrey, N.L., Mexico, means “Sowers of Friendship” in Spanish. Nine local families established the Austin Sembradores chapter in 1995 with the help of a long-established chapter in San Antonio.
