The Foundation for the Specialty Advertising Association of California (SAAC) has named the winners of its 2021 scholarships, according to the foundation’s president, Michael Bistocchi.

Each year the foundation awards the Jim Buescher Scholarship to a recipient personally selected by Jim’s wife, Bobbi, who carefully reviews scholarship submissions and chooses the application and essay she feels most accurately reflects her late husband's dedication to academic excellence. This year’s recipient is Brianna Larios. In addition, six other scholarships were awarded to Katelyn Drake, Shelby Otengehime, Madeline Grobe, Garett Grobe, Alyssa Hernande and Kali Garibay.

On the announcement, Bistocchi says, “The pandemic has affected our country and our industry in different ways. Moving to a scholarship based on similar criteria used for a Pell Grant has allowed SAAC to give back even more to its members during a difficult time. It becomes that much more meaningful knowing we are helping our industry members with scholarship dollars.”

The Foundation for SAAC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation for the specific purpose of granting scholarships to enumerated family members of SAAC members to promote professional, academic or artistic achievement in post-secondary education. The Foundation was created in 2011 as a separate entity from SAAC. The regional association has been giving away scholarships for years, and it is estimated SAAC and the Foundation combined have given away more than $550,000. Along with Bistocchi, the foundation’s board includes Katy Alavez of Promoshop, Tom Levin of Hit Promotional Products, Steve Parker of Starline, Sasha Pierre of BAMKO, Craig Reese of Jack Nadel International, Angela Taylor of AIM, Rhett Todd of Printgear and Beverly Walter of Brown & Bigelow.