The Bloomingdale Youth Organization (BYO)  is seeking two scholarship recipients that will receive $500 each toward college tuition.

Earlier in the year, the BYO announced that it would be merging with the Butler Junior Bulldogs to form the Bloomingdale Butler Youth Club, although the scholarship was already in place before the merger. For this year, the scholarship will only be available to Bloomingdale residents.

According to BYO President Sally Fane, last year, about 120 kids participated in the BYO cheerleading and football program. Younger kids are able to enter the program playing flag football and as cheer mascots and continue on for nine years to play with the junior football and cheerleading teams.

"Many of them go on to play and cheer at the high school and a lot of the girls come back to be coaches for the younger girls," said Fane. 

In order to be eligible for the scholarships, the students must be graduating high school in June of 2011 and must be a resident of Bloomingdale and be entering a full-time educational program at a college or university. The students also must have participated in the BYO football or cheerleading program for at least three years (the years do not have to be consecutive).

"We ask the applicants to write an essay explaining why their experience in our program has helped them or how it has influenced their lives," Fane said. "We evaluate the students' grades and essays when awarding  the scholarship."

The deadline for essay submissions is the end of this week. For a scholarship application form and to submit an essay, contact Fane at 973-317-2811 or sfane@optonline.net.