The Calabash VFW post 7288 Auxiliary is proud to announce the 2024 Theresa McMahon Scholarship winners. Congratulations to three graduating seniors from West Brunswick High School who each received a $1,000 scholarship award. They are Grace Gundrum, attending N. C. State, Aidan T. Heffernan, attending Clemson University and Ian Williamson, attending Brunswick County Community College.
The scholarship is awarded by the Calabash VFW post 7288 auxiliary to selected graduating seniors at the West Brunswick High School that have demonstrated a history of commitment to the community through leadership activities, community service and/or work activities. Other criteria include scholastic achievement and letters of reccomendation.This award is directed to students pursuing a degree from a 4-year university or college, community college, junior college or trade school. The endowment is sent directly to the college of the recipient’s choice at the beginning of the first semester of attendance.
The award was presented by VFW Auxiliary member and scholarship committee chairperson, Dorrie Mascolo who is the niece of Theresa McMahon.
She told the assembled seniors during West Brunswick High School’s Senior Award program: "Education was always very important to my aunt. It was hard for Theresa’s parents, being immigrants, to send all of their children to school for higher education. With that in mind, her daughter, Pat, thought what better way to honor her memory than with an annual scholarship.”
This scholarship was established in memory of former Calabash resident Theresa McMahon (1928-2016), by her daughter Pat. Theresa was one of the original charter members responsible for the establishment of the Calabash N. C. Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 7288, Auxiliary in May 1985. Theresa was a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and a Eucharistic Minister at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Little River, SC.
Her husband, Norman Joseph McMahon (1924-1986), served in the U. S. Army during World War II. She is buried with her husband in the Wilmington National Cemetery, Wilmington, N. C.
