Ascentra Donates $25,000 for Rotary Scholarship Which Honors Late CEO

The Iowa Quad Cities Rotary Group created a scholarship in Ascentra’s late CEO Paul Lensmeyer’s name. He was a long time member of the service Rotary Check presentation 2013organization. During a club meeting on July 25th, 2013, Ascentra donated $25,000 to help sustain the new scholarship.

“We really are grateful for the credit union’s contribution, which will allow us not only to do this for a year, but in the future and it will not only help gain more of an identity as a player in advancing youth, it will help the youth itself,” says club president Sigrid Zaehringer.

The check presentation took place at the Ascentra Bettendorf branch, 2339 53rd Ave. The branch was dedicated to Paul Lensmeyer and is now adorned with a plaque with his likeness on the structure.

Paul was involved in the youth programs the club organized. He served as liaison between the club and high achieving high school students who were invited to visit the club meetings.

“Paul was a very active member, great attendance, very friendly. He was famous for having some humorous and kind of off the cuff comments during meetings,” recalls Zaehringer with a smile. “Paul was active in our service projects, always had some good stories to tell at meetings and just a major player in the club.”

This local chapter of Rotary has different service projects that focus on disadvantaged youth and disadvantaged families. Their primary fundraiser is Ribs for Kids and proceeds from that help children of military families whose parents are serving people overseas attend a kid’s camp.

“We hope this to be a continuing scholarship. As part of our mission we want to help the advancement of people in need and youth and just people committed to academic achievement,” Zaehringer adds.