The Scholarship Fund of Alexandria received its largest gift in its 30 years in existence, a milestone that it marked at its event on Friday.

Alexandria-based Henry Knox Field Lodge No. 349, a local Masonic lodge, donated $600,000, which is expected to help send 40 local children attend college over the next two decades. The gift will support two $15,000 scholarships for two students from T.C. Williams High School each year.

“Today we are offering our financial support to the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria to invest in our local community and in Alexandria’s future. Our gift is intended to help local Alexandria kids who have the grade, grit and determination, but not the financial means, to attend college,” Brian King said at the event. “The Scholarship Fund has a proven track record over the past 30 years of helping to change the lives of Alexandria’s neediest students for the better. We are proud to be able to help local students achieve their college goals.” 

The Henry Knox Field Lodge has been sponsoring a scholarship for SFA since 1992, the Henry Knox Field Scholarship. The scholarship was named after prominent businessman and Grand Master of Masons in Virginia.

Scholarship Fund Board Chair Kathy Conrad praised the lodge’s gift at the event. 

“The college scholarships funded by Henry Knox Field Lodge tonight will literally change the lives of local students forever. The Scholarship Fund is extraordinarily grateful for this gift. We have been working with the local community to help send students in need to college since 1986. With Alexandria’s socioeconomically diverse population continuing to swell at T.C. Williams, the need for college scholarships has simply never been greater. The gift comes just in time to help us try to meet that need.”