"KA-CHING" From KAN$A$ $TAR CA$INO!

If you are a graduating Senior at any school in Sumner County (or Mulvane), gambling has paid off for you at least and 1 year earlier than originally slated. The Kansas Star Casino at Exit 33 on the turnpike announced Thursday it is starting its Kansas All-Star Scholars Fund a year earlier than planned. That means each college bound student in the 2012 class of graduating high school seniors in the Mulvane and Sumner County school districts will receive a $1,000 scholarship from the casino.

The fund was scheduled to start in the fall of the 2012-13 school year. But Brent Stevens, chief executive of Peninsula Gaming, which is managing the Kansas Star for the state, presented a check for $419,000 to the fund during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the casino. The check represented $1,000 for each of the 419 seniors who will graduate this year from Mulvane and Sumner County high schools. The Kansas Star opened on Dec. 26, two months earlier than expected. Stevens said because the casino is operating earlier than planned, “We believe that it is absolutely critical that the class of 2012 be a part of the scholarship fund.”

Each year, the Kansas Star’s $1.5 million scholarship fund also will provide $100 to every student to purchase back-to-school supplies, and $500 to every teacher to purchase classroom supplies, in addition to the $1,000 scholarships for graduating and college bound high school seniors. Former Kansas Board of Regents chair Jill Docking is chair of the Kansas All-Star Scholars Fund board.