Our History
In 1975, alumni Melio Tonini '32 founded the Lincoln High School Alumni Association in Des Moines, Iowa to provide a forum to keep alumni informed of school activities and news about fellow graduates. In the late 1980's, the Association began awarding academic scholarships to selected graduating seniors, usually two per class. In 1990, seeing a growing need for tuition assistance and the desire to give Lincoln students community support, Bill Backstrom '48, Marge White '39, and Skip Timmons '53 established the ALHS Alumni Foundation. They created an endowment fund that provides scholarships to selected graduates to this day. The Foundation's first members contributed $1000 so that they could award two $500 "Alumni Association" scholarships.
Under the direction of Skip Timmons, early Foundation members worked hard at fundraising to help grow the assets of the Foundation. Eleven years later, in 2001, they were able to increase the dollar amount of the Alumni Association scholarships they awarded to $600 each. They increased the dollar amount of the Alumni Association scholarships to $1000 each seven years later, in 2008.
Due to many generous donations from ALHS alumni and a solid investment strategy, Foundation assets have continued to grow. The ALHS Alumni Foundation Scholarships ("Association Scholarships") are funded from interest earned on the endowment. The number of available Association Scholarships varies each year depending upon the dollar amount of interest earned. Selection criteria for Association Scholarships include academic performance, financial need, participation in school activities and community involvement.
In addition to Association Scholarships, the Foundation awards Named Scholarships. Named Scholarships are funded by generous donations from individual Alumni, community members or local business; and have their own selection criteria determined by the donor(s).
In March of 2003, our Foundation partnered with Scholarship America to create the ALHS Alumni Foundation Dollars for Scholars Chapter. That partnership created additional scholarship opportunities for Lincoln High School graduates.
In 2024 our chapter awarded 17 Alumni Association Scholarships and 68 Named Scholarships totaling $123,200 to deserving ALHS Seniors!