AUSTIN, Texas—Club Sembradores de Amistad, an Austin organization dedicated to supporting scholarship endowments for underprivileged students at The University of Texas at Austin and three other central Texas educational institutions, will hold its 10th annual Valentine’s Day Ball beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 14 at Austin’s Omni South Park Hotel.
The formal event, which has paid out about $194,500 for scholarships, is open to the public but seating is limited to about 400 people. Tickets for the dinner and dance must be purchased in advance and cannot be bought at the door, said Hilbert R. Maldonado, president of the Austin chapter of Sembradores de Amistad. 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 Maldonado at 512-733-7775.
Sembradores gala proceeds go toward endowment funds at The University of Texas at Austin, Concordia University at Austin, Huston-Tillotson College and St. Edward’s 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. He noted that 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 in 1994 with the help of a long-established chapter in San Antonio.
He said 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.
