WESTFIELD – When Mary Boscher visited the Big E exposition this past fall, she didn’t know her day out would result in helping Westfield nursing students. While there, she saw a booth about lost money in Massachusetts. She gave her name, and something came up.
Boscher was past president of the Westfield Nurses Association, which disbanded twenty years ago and her name was still on the record. The treasurer passed away fifteen years ago, and they had lost the records, including the bank book and checking account. Boscher assumed that all of the money they had raised had been given to the different organizations they supported.
Mary Boscher presents a check for the $2,700 found money from the Westfield Nurses Association to Michael Rockwal and Cynthia Neary of the CSF Westfield “Dollars for Scholars.” (Photo by Lynn Boscher)
Needing documentation to proceed with the claim, she found something in her desk listing her name as president. Recently, she received a check for $2,700.
As for what to do with the found money, Boscher said the Westfield Nurses Association has a scholarship fund at the Westfield Citizens Scholarship Foundation (CSF) “Dollars for Scholars” for anybody going into nursing, particularly for someone who’s been out of school for a while. “We’ll send it to them,” Boscher said was the decision, adding, “To me, it was just happenstance.”
Boscher said she thought it was an interesting story, how things turn up after so many years. “I was so pleased to see our state function so well,” she said. This week, she presented the check to CSF Westfield.
“We are delighted that this money that had once belonged to the Nurses Association was found, and that Mary Boscher was kind enough to donate it to CSF Westfield to help increase the principal balance in the Westfield Nurses Association endowment scholarship. Since the scholarship was established in 2001, it has helped sixteen Westfield students who are majoring in nursing to pursue their dream of a degree in nursing. This increased amount of money in the principal will help to increase the scholarship amount,” said Cynthia Neary, president.
“With the rising costs, every penny of the scholarship money becomes that much more valuable to the students. We are very thankful to Mary and the Westfield Nurses Association for helping the very deserving students of Westfield,” Neary added.
