The Amboy City Council learned the details of a fundraising campaign that could pay the bill for Amboy High School students to attend Sauk Valley Community College.

Lori Cortez, vice president of advancement at Sauk Valley Community College, addressed the council Monday at its regular February meeting.

“I want you to be proud of your community because I certainly am,” Cortez said.

The Amboy Clipper Impact Challenge is a yearlong campaign to raise $600,000 for Amboy students in the SVCC Impact program. The Impact program allows students to attend SVCC for free tuition and fees in exchange for completing volunteer requirements.

The Amboy challenge kicked off in November and is slated to last a year.

Cortez said the $600,000 the campaign hopes to raise will pay for the tuition and fees for Amboy High School students at Sauk going forward. The Impact program is a $10 million program, of which $8 million already has been raised. That money is put into endowments, and the interest from those endowments will be used to pay tuition and fees for students in the program.

“We have those funds endowed, so this will live in perpetuity. This is not a fly-by-night program where, once we spend the money, it’s gone, and we say sorry, Sauk Valley region, that’s it. No. This is an endowed program. All of our funds are invested,” Cortez said.

Similar campaigns have been launched in many of the communities in Sauk’s six-county region.

“Polo, Milledgeville, Fulton and Prophetstown are fully endowed, meaning these schools will never have to raise another dollar to support the college education of their students at Sauk. They are using that as a recruiting tool,” Cortez said.

So far, there are 1,887 high school students enrolled in the Impact program. Those students, from 18 school districts in Sauk’s district, have completed over 100,000 hours of volunteer work in the last four years. That work amounts to $1.5 million worth of labor for the 300 nonprofits in the program.

From Amboy High School, 92 students are enrolled in the Impact program, and those Amboy students have completed over 4,900 hours of volunteer work with 10 nonprofits from Amboy and the Amboy area.

“Our number one volunteer partner, out of the 300 we have signed up with us, is actually Teen Turf, which is amazing. Eileen brings in students from Dixon, Ashton-Franklin Center and Amboy to come and volunteer at Teen Turf. It’s really cool to see students discovering Amboy and discovering their community,” Cortez said.

Cortez said students get more than free tuition and fees out of the Impact program.

“We know that when kids are volunteering, they are learning those soft skills. Employers are telling us kids don’t know how to show up on time, they don’t know how to make eye contact, they don’t know how to shake a hand. These kids are learning these valuable skills by volunteering right now,” she said.

The program also aims to supply the needed workforce for the Sauk Valley region.

“This is not just a way to get students to go to college. This is a workforce development program. Employers have been telling us for decades that there is not a trained and qualified workforce from which to choose. We know that we need nurses. We need educators. We need agriculture professionals. We need welders and manufacturing employees. Sauk Valley Community College has all of those programs. We are trying to find a way to get kids to go to college and not just go to college but get into the workforce,” she said.

Cortez said the Clipper Impact Challenge is hosting a community fundraising evening, starting 6 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Long Branch in Amboy.

“We will have free food, free drinks and you will hear more from me, Joyce Schamberger, Bob Olson, Emily Zimmerman, Nicole Jones and Nick Dinges. They are all part of the Clipper Impact Challenge campaign management,” Cortez said.

Amboy Mayor Frank Stenzel asked if other municipalities have donated to the Impact program, and Cortez said they have.

“Polo, Ashton, Franklin Grove, Dixon, Sterling and Rock Falls have all given to the Impact program in various amounts. We have had municipalities give from their economic development funds because, again, this is not just a free ride for kids to go to college. We want kids into the workforce locally,” Cortez said.

The Impact program offers donors various ways, plans and time frames to donate. Some of those municipalities have pledged certain amounts over a span of several years, and individual donations also can be structured the same way.

“I would like to see our council at least take a look at it and talk about it,” Stenzel said.