Tag Sale Will Benefit Family Scholarship Fund For Future Entrepreneurs

By Shannon Hicks

The Lowery family of Sandy Hook is preparing to host its third annual tag sale on June 16, the proceeds of which will benefit a scholarship that is dear to the family’s heart.

Elizabeth (Pavlides) Lowery’s father, Professor Constantine C. Pavlides, died unexpectedly in 2009. A scholarship was started in his honor at Temple University, where Prof Pavlides had been a professor of entrepreneurship at the university’s Fox School of Business.

“The scholarship, initially titled The Chris Pavlides Scholarship Fund, was one of the ways in which the university chose to memorialize him,” Mrs Lowery told The Newtown Bee via e-mail.

Prof Pavlides’s entrepreneurship students “quickly mobilized to remember their professor and local entrepreneurship champion,” Mrs Lowery said. Students hosted various creative fundraisers, including starting the ILM (In Loving Memory) clothing line in his honor, auctioning off the late professor’s extensive collection of owls (the symbol of Temple), and creating an annual golf outing in his honor, with all proceeds to benefit the scholarship fund.

Less than five months after Prof Pavlides’s passing, however, another period of mourning surrounded the family. Mrs Lowery’s 27-year-old brother, Charles George Pavlides, also died unexpectedly. The family decided at that time, said Mrs Lowery, to change the name of the scholarship to its current name, The Pavlides Family Scholarship at Temple University, “as a way to memorialize them both, and also uphold their joint love of education and philanthropy.”

The tag sale is something Mrs Lowery’s family started and while she admits “it isn’t a huge moneymaker,” the annual event does do a number of things: it continues to spread the word about her family’s scholarship fund, and it “is a great way to clean out the basement,” she said.

Friends and neighbors have helped each year, donating items to sell at the tag sale.

This year’s Pavlides Family Scholarship Tag Sale will be Saturday, June 16, from 8 am until 3 pm, at the home of Elizabeth and Wilson Lowery, 6 Brandywine Lane in Sandy Hook. It will have something for everyone, from fun knick-knacks, household items and books to clothing, children’s items, holiday items and more, said Mrs Lowery, and all items will be priced to sell.

“My 3-year-old son, Orion, will be following in his grandfather’s entrepreneurial footsteps by having a lemonade stand as well,” said Mrs Lowery. “We all pitch in and make a fun day out of it.”

Residents who would like to donate items are also invited to join the fundraising. Contact Mrs Lowery at ejplowery@gmail.com. All proceeds from the tag sale (and lemonade stand) will be donated to the scholarship fund.

After three years of fundraising and organizational efforts, the first Pavlides Family Scholarship was awarded last month to Candace Kilstein, an undergraduate student at Temple majoring in entrepreneurship and marketing, with an economics minor. Criteria was based upon academic achievement, strong leadership and team work skills, participation in entrepreneurship applied programs, as well as having a strong interest to start an entrepreneurial venture upon graduation.