What is happening at Puksta?
The impact of COVID-19 on our Puksta Scholars has been devastating.
Several of our Puksta Scholars have lost family members to this virus, many are dealing with the loss of their jobs and income, most have lost their housing and access to food, and almost all have struggled to maintain the support systems they had prior to the pandemic.
In the 20+ years that the Puksta Foundation has been providing scholarships, we have never faced a challenge like we see today to provide our scholars with the programming and support that has proven to be so important to our students who are coming from underresourced and marginalized communities.
What can we do now?
The best action that we can take right now is to reach out to ask for your help in creating a “COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund.” The purpose of this fund will be to provide immediate financial support to our Puksta Scholars who are facing growing challenges meeting their basic human needs of food, shelter, access to healthcare, and adequate technology to continue their education remotely.
Our goal is to raise $50,000 which will be set aside and made available for our current Puksta Scholars to apply for on a case-by-case basis with any funds remaining when the immediate need subsides being made available for scholarship funding.
None of us knows where this pandemic will take us, but we do know that our students have a need today that is far above our normal funding for scholarships, programming, and community projects, and, we want to be there to help them through this time.
We do hope you will partner with us in our effort to raise the Puksta Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund.
With gratitude,
John Mulstay
President/Founder
