Welcome
The Exposition Area Alumni Scholarship Fund is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization that has awarded more than $500,000 in scholarships to deserving students with ties to the Exposition Area of West Springfield, Massachusetts.
Here you will find the Scholarship Application as well as information about the Scholarship Fund, its fundraisers and its founders, a group of people known as The Deadline Gang, bound together by their neighborhood roots and unmatched community spirit.
There also is information here about the annual Amo “Betts” Bessone Hockey Awards Banquet, which recognizes the most valuable high school hockey players in Western Massachusetts. This banquet, originated by the Scholarship Fund in 1967, honors one of several athletic Hall of Famers reared in the Exposition Area, including Mr. Bessone, football legend Angelo Bertelli and Olympic Hockey Gold Medalist Eugene Grazia.
Beyond providing valuable financial assistance to qualified students, the Scholarship Fund is an enduring source of pride for the Exposition Area, a small, storybook neighborhood that exemplifies the spirit of America in its civic, athletic and military contributions to the greater good.
Our History
In the early 1960s, a group of friends who grew up as first-generation Americans in a close-knit neighborhood in West Springfield, MA came together to form a scholarship fund to help their children and descendants gain educational opportunities. Many of them had not attended college, recognized the value of higher education, and knew that the expense was beyond the financial means of many young people in their area. Their legacy is more than $500,000 in scholarships to hundreds of students with family ties to the neighborhood.
Today, the fund is sustained primarily by the annual golf tournament and memorial contributions. It distributes 20 to 25 scholarships each year to deserving eligible students. The children and grandchildren of the founders, many of whom received these scholarships as young people, are proud to carry on this tradition in honor of their memories.