SAGINAW COUNTY CHAPTER

The Saginaw County Chapter of MARSP has approximately 760 members and is located in Central Eastern Michigan just South of The Saginaw Bay.  The Saginaw County Association of Retired School Personnel, (SCARSP) is overseen by a 10-member Executive Board, consisting of the President, Vice President, Secretary, Past President, plus Committee chairs for Membership, Scholarship, Legislative, Insurance, Community Service, and Remembrance.

The Saginaw County Association of Retired School Personnel (SCARSP) holds six Chapter meetings per year, and 9 Executive Committee Meetings annually.  the chapter meetings include a holiday season and St. Patrick’s celebration. SCARSP is a large, involved, and vibrant group. Meetings consisted of sharing necessary information relative to the needs of both senior citizens and retired school personnel.

SCARSP exerts itself to be involved with a variety of Community Service efforts, most specifically focused toward Children.  Annually, SCARSP supports The Mustard Seed, a shelter program for women, many with children who are experiencing homelessness.  SCARSP’s efforts are to provide an enjoyable Christmas for the children who are spending their Christmas as residents of The Mustard Seed.  Each year, the Board selects target community organizations to support. 2024 will see a three-month effort to support READ of Saginaw County, an organization to enable the improvement of reading skills in children in the Saginaw area.  SCARP is collecting books for the organization. In the past, community support has included, The Neighborhood House, The East Side Soup Kitchen, Restoration Community Outreach Men’s Mission, and the First Choice Program. Members are encouraged to community organizations listed agencies in their membership directory.

For many years, almost since its inception, SCARSP has focused on efforts to provide scholarships to college students who are focused on achieving in the field of Education.  Our organization currently holds an endowment in excess of $40,000 which produces up to $5,000 annually available for providing scholarships.  Typically, SCARSP awards three $1,000 Scholarships annually to students.  This program is operated in cooperation with The Saginaw Community Foundation.

A new effort, beginning this year, funded by our Annual Willie Allen Casino Bus Adventure, is to support teachers in local public schools in their efforts to educate children.  These efforts will be through both direct grants to educators, and via the Donors Choose operation in cooperation with MARSP.

SCARSP/MARSP are and will continue to be focused on making a meaningful impact in the community.

Current SCARSP efforts involve rebuilding the organization which was decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic meetings were typically 160 people gathering together. Post-pandemic meetings have now recovered to about 70 members.  The MARSP Chapter operates on a “Continuous Quality Improvement” model striving constantly to improve itself and its value and worth to the Saginaw Community.