AUSTIN, Texas—The Sembradores de Amistad Valentine’s Day Ball 2003, supporting scholarship endowments for underprivileged students at The University of Texas at Austin and three other central Texas educational institutions, will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 15 at Austin’s Omni South Park Hotel.
Ron Olivera, evening news anchor for the KVUE television station in Austin, will be master of ceremonies for the ninth annual event.
The Valentine’s Day Ball, a formal event, is open to the public. Seating is limited to about 400 people and tickets for the dinner and dance cannot be purchased at the door. Tickets cost $130 a couple. Sponsor tables cost $2,000 for a gold corporate table and $1,250 for a silver corporate table. For details, contact Hilbert R. Maldonado, president of the Austin chapter of Sembradores de Amistad, at 512-733-7775.
Sembradores gala proceeds go toward endowment funds at The University of Texas at Austin, Concordia University, Huston-Tillotson College and St. Edwards University. 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,” Maldonado said. “Beginning this year, the scholarship funds allocated to The University of Texas at Austin from the gala proceeds will become a part of the university’s endowed presidential scholarship program.”
Maldonado said nine local families established the Austin Sembradores chapter with the help of a long-established chapter in San Antonio. This year’s gala is expected to raise about $40,000, bringing the total amount raised to about $194,000 since the non-profit organization was formed in 1994.
Preference for Sembradores scholarships is 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.” Maldonado said the name of the international non-profit organization, which has its headquarters in Monterrey, N.L., Mexico, means "Sowers of Friendship" in Spanish.
For more information contact: Robert D. Meckel, Office of Public Affairs, 512-475-7847.
