Putnam: Mint festival scholarship dispute in St. Johns leaves a sour taste

Winner didn't move in time to collect full scholarship because of lupus

Lansing State Journal

Margaret Burnham, 20, from St. Johns, talks on March 14, 2018 about how she wrote an essay that she thought would give her $1,000 through the Mint Festival. She only received half because of a residency issue.

ST. JOHNS – A dispute over the St. Johns Mint Festival college scholarship has left a sour taste in the mouth of one Clinton County family.

Margaret Burnham, 20, last week was awarded a $500 scholarship based on an application she filed in 2015. The scholarship is paid from money made at the summer festival, now in its 34th year.

The long delay was over a disagreement between the Clinton County Chamber of Commerce and the Burnham family on whether Margaret qualified for the scholarship because she was living in Illinois at the time she applied. Also in dispute was whether she should have received $1,000, the same as some past winners.

Many young people struggle with the transition from high school to college, but Margaret had an extra challenge. She had to undergo chemotherapy for lupus, a life-threatening autoimmune disorder that she was diagnosed with at age 13.

Margaret was home schooled and living in a Chicago suburb when she applied for the scholarship. She planned to move with her family to St. Johns after her May 2015 high school graduation. Her dad, Michael, grew up in St. Johns and inherited a share of the family farm in 2014.

The family was building a new home on the property.

The move-in date got put on hold for a seven-month round of chemotherapy to treat her lupus.

Parents of Margaret Burnham, Michael and Amy Burnham from St. Johns, said March 14, 2018 their daughter wasn't treated fairly after winning a Mint Festival scholarship.

“I feel like they kind of did penalize me. It’s not entirely my fault that I couldn’t come up here,” she said.

Margaret found out about winning the scholarship only because her mother, Amy, stopped by the mint festival’s home at the Clinton County Chamber of Commerce and asked around August 2015, just before the family moved to the farm.

“I screamed, ‘Wow, that’s my daughter. She’ll be so excited,’” Amy Burnham recalled.

In that visit, Amy said, she told the staff that her family was moving to Clinton County.

Brenda Terpening, executive director of the Clinton County Chamber of Commerce, said she balked at giving the scholarship once she found out that the family was still in Chicago. She didn't know about the lupus at that time.

“They were not living and going to school in Clinton County like the application says,” she said Monday.

That would make it pretty cut-and-dried wouldn’t it? Except for this: The 2015 application didn't spell that out.

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The 2015 application, found on an archived version of a page on the chamber’s website, only asks for an address and says it’s for “a graduating senior pursuing a career in the business field.” No scholarship amount is listed, though it’s traditionally been $1,000.

The 2018 scholarship now specifies in bold print: “You must live and go to school in Clinton County to qualify.” It also states that the scholarship could be $500 or $1,000.

Terpening said the delay in giving the scholarship was caused by a disagreement over the amount. The Mint Festival Committee decided to award $500 of the usual $1,000 award to Burnham. But after Amy Burnham protested, Terpening said she took it back to the festival committee and to the Chamber Board. Both affirmed the award amount.

Surrounded by some of her rescued pets "Anelli" the cat, "Stanley," left, and "Dorito," Margaret Burnham, 20, from St. Johns, talks March 14, 2018 about how she wrote an essay that she thought won her a $1,000 through the Mint Festival. She only received half because of a residency issue.

She said some years they’ve given out $500 scholarships and $250 scholarships.

“We’re not obligated to give out a scholarship,” she said.

That may be so, but the obligation of the Mint Festival should be about community. A young woman with deep local roots struggling with health issues should be viewed as part of that community. The chamber was founded to advance business and community interest. She fits the bill in that respect.

Margaret wrote in her essay about her plans to own her own dog-grooming business. She’s been a paid animal caretaker since the age of 9.

She’s taking online classes and studying entrepreneurial business through Thomas Edison State University in New Jersey. She also recently did a five-month internship at Disney World where she worked in housekeeping.

She hoped she would get the full $1,000. “It seems like they kind of cheated me a little bit,” she said.

Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Follow her on twitter @judyputnam.