Afton PEO raises funds for educating girls and women

Dozens of auction items donated by members of the P.E.O. Chapter GT of Afton brought in nearly $8,000 at the organization’s fundraiser this fall to support local girls and women seeking higher education.

The Afton chapter of P.E.O., a women’s philanthropic education organization, provides financial and moral support for several students each year.

At the fundraiser, held in November at The Coves Clubhouse on Grand Lake, participants engaged in spirited bidding on both silent and live auction items. Stephen Nation, spouse of a Chapter GT member, served as auctioneer. 

P.E.O. offers scholarships, grants, awards, and loans to help women enhance their lives through learning. The organization was founded in 1869 by seven students at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Since its founding, P.E.O expanded to include women off campus as well, bringing together more than half a million women in the United States and Canada to help women advance through education. Since 1927, P.E.O. has owned and supported Cottey College, a nationally ranked arts and sciences college for women, located in Nevada, Missouri.

Among other programs, P.E.O. offers the Educational Loan Fund (ELF) to lend money to qualified women students to assist them in securing a higher education. In addition, the organization sponsors the International Peace Scholarship Fund (IPS) to provide scholarships for selected women from other countries for graduate study in the United States or Canada.

P.E.O. also provides need-based grants to women whose education has been interrupted and also offers merit-based awards for women in the U.S. and Canada who are pursuing a doctoral-level degree. Since 2009, the international organization has awarded the annual P.E.O. STAR Scholarship, valued at $2,500, for exceptional women in their final year of high school to attend an accredited post-secondary educational institution in the U.S. or Canada.