Alice L. Hinkley knew the importance of education.

Having only gone as far as a few months of ninth grade in the Carthage area where she grew up, she wanted to see all of her seven children at least finish high school.

But she really wanted them to go to college.

“She realized it was a handicap for getting good jobs and in society,” related her son Rev. Ken Hinkley, Alice’s only child to obtain a college degree. “She just wanted her children to have a better life than they could afford.”

So in 2000, three years before her death,  she and other family members started an endowment for her and her husband’s descendants in hopes it would help them go to college. 

It has started off small, and has only awarded two scholarships totaling $165, but the board members would like to see that change.

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In 2008, the Hinkley family opened the scholarship to the general public and now is offering one $100 scholarship or 20 percent of monies raised the previous year, depending on which is greater.

Applicants only need to be attending a college in Maine, write an essay, and submit an application to the fund. Age does not matter and school choice does not matter.

So in order to keep the fund alive, the large extended Hinkley family works together to fund raise year after year. 

Annually they have a large garage sale in May, sell root beer floats at a booth during Kingfield Days, and, new this year, offer gift wrapping on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for donations on Main Street in Farmington.

“We have the shopper put the donation in the bucket themselves because we don’t want anyone to be embarrassed if they only have $2,” said Bonnie Paskell, granddaughter of Alice Hinkley and secretary of the Hinkley Scholarship board. “And the donation is up to the person and how well they thought we did.”

The family knows they can not offer large amounts of money yet, but they hope that by offsetting the price of even one book, it will help someone further their education.


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