Today, Sport Clips Haircuts presented a $1,026,105 donation check to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation (VFW) to provide scholarships for service members and veterans. Even in a pandemic, veterans are returning from active military duty to prepare for civilian careers that often require additional college, graduate, and technical degrees and training. To ease the financial burden of going back to school, Sport Clips and the VFW have teamed up for the past seven years to provide assistance through the Help A Hero Scholarship program.
"Supporting our nation's military remains a priority for our veteran-founded business. We are honored to make this donation to the Help A Hero program for those who have given so much through their service," said Gordon Logan, Air Force veteran, VFW Life member and founder and chairman of Sport Clips. "We're grateful to our franchisees, team members, clients, and product partners who faithfully support these essential scholarships."
"The pandemic’s impact has been far-reaching, especially for our military and veteran families, and this campaign helps to ensure we continue to provide as many student veterans with scholarships as possible," said Hal Roesch II, VFW national commander. "I’m proud to announce that we have awarded another 160 student veterans with scholarships totaling nearly $700,000 for the spring 2021 semester. To date, more than 1,900 military and student veterans have benefitted from the Help A Hero Scholarship program through $8.7 million donated previously by Sport Clips Haircuts and its generous clients and product partners."
More than $60,000 of the money was raised this year was from Sport Clips’ own $1 per haircare service donation made on Veterans Day while clients, individual supporters, and Sport Clips team members donated the largest portion of the money raised in stores and through virtual walks. Sport Clips partners Direct Beauty Express, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Nioxin, Sexy Hair, Gibs Grooming, ACTiiV, and Darlington Raceway also made substantial contributions.
Help A Hero Scholarship applications are open now through April 30 for the fall 2021 semester to receive up to $5,000 of assistance per semester, per family for service members and veterans in the rank of E-5 and below. To find out more, visit your local Sport Clips, SportClips.com/hero or VFW.org/scholarship.