By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

Grand Island Independent Publisher Don Smith announced that the newspaper is contributing $1,000 of seed money to create the Abbott-Independent Scholarship Fund.

The fund is part of the Living Legacy project to honor the sisters. The fund will provide scholarships to Hall County students pursuing a degree in social work at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Nebraska at Omaha or the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Dr. Anne Coyne, a professor from the University of Nebraska at Omaha School of Social Work, said many parts of rural Nebraska lack licensed social workers. The duty often falls to the wife of a sheriff when child abuse/neglect, foster care and child welfare issues arise.

"We are thrilled we will have the opportunity to have rural students coming in in order to get more trained people," she said of the scholarship. "If you put a map up and show where the licensed social workers are in the state, there's whole sections of Western Nebraska and even Central Nebraska that we don't have very many."

"We see this as a great opportunity to follow on with the legacy of Grace and Edith Abbott," Coyne said.

In 1921, Grace Abbott was named chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau, which made her the highest ranking and most powerful woman in the U.S. government when the Depression hit. Her older sister, Edith Abbott, served as dean of the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration and worked successfully to establish social work as a profession.

John Sorensen, director of the Abbott Sisters Project, said the scholarship fund is hoped to grow through future contributions from individuals, groups and other potential donors such as the Grand Island Community Foundation, the Grand Island Education Foundation, Delta Gamma National Headquarters and the National Association of Social Workers the latter two of which both Abbotts were members.

The Abbott-Independent Scholarship Fund joins two other existing scholarships that Sorensen said the Abbotts would have been pleased to see offered in their hometown of Grand Island.

They are the Alda Gunn Scholarship, aimed at assisting a Grand Island African-American student, and the Svoboda Family Nuer Heritage Scholarship, which is targeted toward Grand Island Senior High or Swift Education Program graduates who are of Nuer heritage.

Sorensen said the Abbotts were strong advocates for new immigrants and for lifelong learning.

The new scholarship was announced during the seventh annual Abbott Sisters Day ceremony held Sunday afternoon at the Grand Island Public Library, which is named after Edith Abbott. A Grand Island park bears the name of younger sister Grace Abbott.

Bronze busts of both women are displayed in the library foyer.

As part of the celebration Sunday, nearly 30 members of the Nuba Youth Choir from Trinity United Methodist Church sang under the director of Younis Adenti.

The children sang one song about loving Jesus in Moro a native tongue from the Nuba Mountain region of south Sudan. Their second song, "Mama Smile at Me," was in English.

Sorensen said the Living Legacy Project, which is chaired by Lynn Cronk of Grand Island, will also include a quilting project this summer at Stuhr Museum involving Sudanese women and families. The art of quilting will be shared as a method of telling the story of Sudanese heritage.