Ray Engelking Memorial Scholarship Fund

Quite a successful year for West Bend Scholarships!

Congratulations to Addison Boylen, the recipient of this years Ray Engelking Memorial Scholarship!

Over $900,000 in scholarships given to WBHS students WEST BEND — The West Bend School District (WBSD) announced on Friday that it recently held its annual Scholarship Night for both West Bend East and West seniors, during which

West Bend Columns published a video highlighting the recipients of the 2023 Scholarships and our winner, Mya Spaar, was among those highlighted. (at 2:45)

2023 West Bend East and West High Schools Scholarships Nearly 150 students of the West Bend High Schools received about $900,000 in local scholarships for their post-secondary education.

West Bend Columns published a video highlighting the recipients of the 2024 Scholarships and our winner, Sara Patterson, was among those highlighted. (at 2:29)

2024 Scholarships of West Bend (Wis.) East and West High Schools More than 140 high school seniors received scholarships for post-secondary education due to amazing support from the local community in the West Bend, Wis. a...

This photo of Mya Spaar, the second recipient of the Ray L. Engelking Memorial Scholarship Fund was taken from a video put out by Columns that celebrated the 2023 recipients.

Our most recent recipient of the Ray L. Engelking Memorial Scholarship was Sara Patterson, who utilized the scholarship to pursue nursing at Moraine Park Technical College.

Throwback to our First Recipient of the Ray Engelking Memorial Scholarship Fund scholarship, Kira Guse who used the scholarship to pursue her goal of being a nurse at Morain Park Technical College.

November 5th would have been Ray’s 73rd birthday. To commemorate that anniversary, students from the high school he taught at for 36 years gathered to cleanup a stretch of highway dedicated in his honor. His wife, three sons, and granddaughter were also on hand to do their part to care for their community.

Thanks to Mike Rahlf for coordinating the event!

Volunteers, students clean up Highway 45 in remembrance of former teacher WEST BEND — More than 80 students turned up Saturday to clean up a portion of Highway 45 in memory of former West Bend West High School economics teacher Ray

We are grateful for all who showed up at the Twisted Pair and participated in the 10th Annual Vintage Motorcycle Poker Run. Proceeds from the hundreds who attended this event were considerable and were matched by Sean Collins, the owner of Twisted Pair. Sean was Ray’s Little Brother during the time that Ray was involved with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Washington County. We are so grateful for all of your support!

Greetings Friends and Family,

It has been several months since the event that took my father from us so suddenly and so tragically. I write to you today to announce that after careful consideration, my family and I have decided that the public health situation has evolved enough at this point that we feel comfortable to celebrate the life of Ray Engelking in a more public setting. What this means is that, given the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, we believe a significant amount of the public has been vaccinated and we no longer feel that a memorial celebrating his life in person poses a significant health threat to those who might attend.

I must apologize ahead of time if the delay has caused any scheduling conflicts. We have been taking things day by day and considering what we feel ready for and how we can prove the most joyful celebration of my father's life possible. That being said, we now have a date, time and venue to announce so that hopefully you can join us.

Date: August 7, 2021
Place: St. Michael Church 8883 Forest View Rd. Kewaskum, WI 53040
Time(s):
10:00 Greeting
10:30 Memorial Service
12:00 Reception in St. Michael Parish Center
We are reaching out to you because we know my father would have wanted you to be present. For those who are present at the event, our plan is to follow the most up to date recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control for such events which may include masks for unvaccinated individuals and/or other hygiene protocols. As the event approaches I will provide an update of what protocols we expect during that time. We understand that circumstances might make that difficult, so we are exploring steps to record and/or make the service available via livestream for individuals who are unable to be physically present.

We also understand that many of you might be traveling from a considerable distance to attend. Unfortunately, after calling ahead to the local hotels, we became aware that many of the hotels in the West Bend/Kewaskum area are already fully booked for summer activities on August 7th. Of those that are not fully booked, we were unable to find a hotel that would block off rooms, but we were able to find several that have indicated available rooms for August 7th. I have listed these below by proximity to the church and indicated (in parenthesis) approximately how many rooms are currently available on August 7th.

Please RSVP using the form below if you intend to be present for this event as we will need to monitor the attendance so as to cater appropriately . We will continue to provide any relevant updates via email and post them on the page that we have established for relaying information pertinent to the Ray L. Engelking Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Thank you in advance for all that you have meant to my father and we hope to see you in August!

Rhett Alexander Engelking

Suggested Local Accomodations:

Hidden Serenity Bed and Breakfast (4) 1876 Shalom Dr, West Bend, WI 53090•(262) 623-0148 https://hiddenserenity.com/guest-rooms/
AmericInn by Wyndham West Bend (49) 2424 W Washington St, West Bend, WI 53095•(262) 208-5209. https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/americinn/west-bend-wisconsin/americinn-west-bend/overview?CID=LC:AA::GGL:RIO:National:52074&iata=00093796
The Audobon Inn (9) 45 North Main Street, Mayville, Wisconsin • 920-485-9472 https://hotelonthemarsh.com

A Celebration of Ray L. Engelking

UPDATE: With the consolidation of donations from GoFundMe and the generous donation from the WTKGA consolidated to our fund at WB Columns, the amount raised for our fund is $54,708.02

This amount has already EXCEEDED our original $50K Goal by almost $5,000!!!

Great job, and thanks again to all who have donated thus far. For any future donations to the Ray Engelking Memorial Scholarship Fund, simply go to www.wbcolumns.org/donate and type "Ray Engelking" in the "Name of Scholarship" field. It's that easy.