Ashley Frazier states that she is “exactly” where she desires to be in her young life. At this moment, she is studying cosmetology at the Empire Beauty School in Portland, Maine, a city that like Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, Rhode Island, and in other urban centers, is not only a center of government, medicine, and great restaurants, but also a center of education.

Her field of study at the Portland-based school, cosmetology, has always intrigued Frazier. As long as she can remember, she enjoyed working with hair and nails, and she is now excited at the prospect of making her fun, her life’s work. The Boothbay Region Student Aid Fund (BRSAF) proudly notes that Ashley Frazier is the recipient of a BRSAF scholarship, one of the 60 scholarships (covering part of a student family’s unmet need) granted for the 2013-2014 academic year.The amount of these scholarships which totaled $240,000.

Frazier, finds her beauty school education enjoyable, but also challenging and demanding. Empire requires its students to clock 1,500 hours in order to become a certified cosmetologist, and it takes approximately 10 months to fully complete the curriculum. Students at Empire clock in and out 35 hours per week, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., five days a week.

Her skincare classes involve instruction on client dermatological problems, including skins cancers and other dermatological disorders. Some of her other classes, for example, focus on contemporary hair styles from fishtail braids to bobbed cuts.

To date, Frazier has had chance to serve three clients and has found the work, as expected, both fun and, at the same time, demanding. The school encourages the public to make appointments, which allow Empire students to showcase their newly acquired skills.

Frazier is excited about her education and the opportunity it affords for a wonderful career. She is especially grateful for the financial aid that she is receiving from the Boothbay Region Student Aid Fund (BRSAF). Empire is costly, observes Frazier, and the BRSAF aid she is receiving lifted from Frazier and her family an important part of the burden.

Ashley Frazier’s grant for this academic year, 2013-2014, came from the BRSAF’s “General Fund.” That fund is supported by the annual contributions made by the generous people of our region: you and your neighbors.

Historically, going back to the founding of the BRSAF in 1964, every January, amidst the freezing cold and windblown snow, 25 to 50 mothers from all over the Boothbay Region gathered in the harbor to receive assignments and then to march “door to door” soliciting monies as part of the Student Aid Fund’s Annual Campaign.

In these early years the January “Mother’s March” and its progress rated bold headlines in the Boothbay Harbor Register. These January mother’s marches lasted about a decade to be replaced by today’s mailing. However, one way or another, the “Annual Campaign” remains today as important as it was in the Register-headlined past, and students like Ashley Frazier at the Empire School are the very reason why.

The Boothbay Region Student Aid Fund (BRSAF) is currently in the midst of its Annual Fund drive. Contributions to the BRSAF can be sent to P.O. Box 293, Boothbay Harbor, ME 04538. For more information on the BRSAF, go to www.boothbayharborstudentaidfund.org.