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The Holland M. Ware Charitable Foundation has established a fund to provide scholarships for students in trade and technical programs and for GED testing at West Georgia Technical College.

According to a news release from the college, the Holland M. Ware Scholarship Fund is named for philanthropist Holland Ware, whose life was about giving and improving quality of life for people and animals through research and action.

The Holland M. Ware Charitable Foundation is committed to providing financial resources that encourage opportunities for students pursuing careers in trade and technical fields who may not otherwise have the resources to begin and/or complete their education.

“We were specifically interested in West Georgia Tech, as our gounder was a native to Hogansville and we spend a significant amount of our time and resources in the West Georgia area, specifically LaGrange and Newnan,” said Alyssa Schoessow, executive operations director of the Ware Foundation, in a news release. “Our hope is to create scholarship opportunities for students to learn a skill and trade that they otherwise may not be able to afford to do. In doing so, they would be able to have a career that would not be possible without the necessary education.”

Holland Ware was one of the largest landowners in the U.S., owning a substantial amount of timberland across several Southern states, but in his hometown of Hogansville and across the West Georgia area, he may have been more well-known for his humanitarian spirit.

The news release said Ware and his wife, Faye, invested millions of dollars in their hometown region, giving to Piedmont and Emory hospitals, and the LaGrange and Coweta county animal shelters. The Ware family transferred a considerable amount of their holdings to the foundation, which supports cancer research and humane treatment of animals among other areas.

The news release said the Holland M. Ware Scholarship Fund will provide six scholarships per year for GED testing and 18 scholarships per year for students in technical and trade programs at the Coweta or LaGrange campuses, or the Franklin or Greenville instructional sites.

“We are so proud to be entrusted with the Holland M. Ware Scholarship Fund for technical education students and the Holland M. Ware GED Scholarship Fund for adult education students,” WGTC Foundation Executive Director Kelsey Jones said in the press release. “We know these investments will have a tremendous impact on the lives of so many students, and we’re so grateful to have established what I’m sure will be a strong connection to the Holland M. Ware Charitable Foundation.”

To learn more about supporting the WGTC Foundation, email Kelsey.Jones@westgatech.edu.