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Expansion of funds grants opportunities for UNH organizations.

University of New Hampshire (UNH) organizations and individuals now have expanded resources to fund their extra-curricular activities as the Parent Association grant doubled its funds from $30,000 to $60,000.
The Parent Association grant, created in 1992 and overseen by the UNH Parents Council, is funded through the endowed student enrichment fund.
The increased funds have become available as a result of repurposing the balance in the Parents Association Scholarship Fund, to be a part of the Student Enrichment Fund, effectively doubling the amount of money the parent council is able to reward.
UNH Parents Council President Pam Dey Vossler oversees the grant with a passion for giving students the funds that exist to better their involvement at the university.
“Awarding these grants is one of the very best things that this council does,” Vossler said.
Student organizations in need of a way to benefit their club can receive up to $4,000 in rewards. New to this year, the council is also giving individual students who need support funding an educational activity the opportunity to apply for this grant. A single student applying can be rewarded up to $1,000.
“By virtue of having a child that goes to UNH, every single parent is a member of the parent association, whether they know it or not,” Vossler said. “It’s a really nice thing to do, in keeping up with the supportive role that parents like to play as students are spreading their wings and going off to college.”
In the past, various organizations have benefitted from the grant, including the Men and Women’s rowing teams, WUNH, Campus Recreation, Students Without Borders and more.
One group on the UNH campus lacking a safety necessity for their sport was the UNH Shooting Club. The club was given $1,542 to fund the purchase of a gun safe to allow for the secure storage of firearms.
“Previously, club members were keeping their firearms at the UNH Police Station and so many people were doing it that the police station was getting overwhelmed,” UNH senior and Shooting Club President Connor Foley said. “I remember specifically that our firearms were stacked in their cases like Tetris blocks in the storage cabinets at the station. The proceeds from the grant went towards a beautiful new Winchester electronic safe with plenty of space for our firearms. Now at least half a dozen club members keep their firearms in the safe.”
Students can apply through the UNH website under grant programs by the deadline in November, and here they can also see the specific criteria needed to be met.
“Almost everyone will get something if it applies to the grant outlines,” Vossler explained. “The only grants we have denied are ones that are exclusionary, such as a student looking for money to study abroad.”
The grant committee on the parent’s council, which consists of 11 parents, will read over and discuss all of the applications, to make sure they correlate with all of the grant’s parameters. The receivers of the awards will be notified in December.
“Student activity money isn’t always available. For a school that has very tight budgets, this is actually a lot of money that is up for grabs,” Vossler said. “There are still a lot of students that don’t know this is here, but we are using outlets such as promoting it at U-day this year to spread the word.”

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