The Bruce and Carolyn Mathews Scholarship Fund

The Mathew's have been active members of several United Methodist Churches over the years while serving in the United States Air Force, and of Christ Community United Methodist Church, and the Desert Southwest Conference for 27 years. They are true believers in spreading the wealth and have lived their lives doing so. Bruce and Carolyn have been long-time supporters of the mission and work done at Wesley Community Center. They have a passion for helping the underprivileged children which live in the neighborhood Wesley serves.

When Bruce was confronted with a life-threatening illness, the Mathews began to be concerned about how they could continue to help these underprivileged children when they were gone. With that in mind they did what many others only think about: They discussed it with their entire family and came up with a plan on how they could continue to support the mission ministry provided by Wesley Community Center.

During Bruce's last days, they contacted the Desert Southwest United Methodist Foundation (DSUMF) and asked for their assistance to set up a Scholarship Fund for children wishing to further their education from Wesley Community Center. When Bruce went to his glory, they began their quest by asking that donations be sent to DSUMF for the scholarship fund in lieu of flowers, expecting to make up the minimum balance on their own once all donations were received. As it turns out, there were so many loving generous donations that the endowment was funded beyond expectations once all contributions had been received.

To ensure the growth of the fund, the entire family made the conscious decision to continue making contributions to this fund by donating what would otherwise be spent on gifts for all occasions for each family member. Carolyn stated "God has blessed our family with so much that no one really needs anything, so instead of buying gifts for each other we will all contribute to this fund for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, and on any other gift giving opportunities." Needless to say they have done just that, the entire Mathews family is so serious about their purpose that just after their grandson's college graduation, he wrote a contribution check to the fund from his very first paycheck.

The legacy of Bruce and Carolyn will live on forever. Even though future generations will not personally know them, these young men and women will benefit from their generous and caring hearts. Who knows the difference they will make in a yet unborn child's future. The entire Mathews family are very excited about this opportunity to serve and thankful that the Lord has so richly blessed them. They feel that while each recipient of this scholarship will be blessed the blessings each donor has received is far greater.