Tech’s defensive coordinator Bud Foster is committed to helping student-athletes and has committed three decades of his life to the Virginia Tech football program and to the university.
Now, he has decided to commit more than just his football expertise, as the Virginia Tech Athletics Department announced Tuesday that the longtime defensive coordinator had agreed to commit $100,000 through his Lunch Pail Defense Foundation to endow a scholarship for athletics.
The scholarship – called “The Bud Foster Lunch Pail Defense Foundation Athletic Scholarship” – will be awarded annually to a football student-athlete, with preference given to a first-generation college student who shows a demonstrated financial need.
“It’s just a way for me to give back to the university and to a department that has been so good to me for 30-plus years,” Foster said. “We’ve had the Lunch Pail Defense Foundation for several years, and we created it for scholarship purposes for kids in the New River Valley and the Roanoke Valley. We just felt like, as we moved forward, with what the lunch pail is all about and what it means to the university and to the program … it felt like a no-brainer to get people involved and help endow a scholarship for the department and deserving student-athletes.
Foster said there are so many coaches, administrators, fans and alums who are doing their part to help the Hokie Club and promote the Drive for 25 that he just felt like it was time for him and the Foundation to jump in, too and do the part.
“Hopefully it will inspire other Hokies to get involved at whatever level they can. We’re all in it together, as Coach (Frank) Beamer used to say,” he said.
Several years ago, Foster established his foundation, a charity whose purpose is to raise money to fund academic scholarships for eligible high school students from the New River and Roanoke Valley areas. Foster and the review board seek students who not only need financial assistance, but also those who best exhibit a “lunch pail” mentality – with traits such as work ethic, character and determination.
Using proceeds raised from a summer golf tournament at Auburn Hills and from various dinners held throughout the state, the Lunch Pail Defense Foundation has previously awarded 27 scholarships of varying dollar amounts to students from these areas for a total of nearly $100,000.
A couple of years ago, Foster expanded the charity’s scope, creating the “Organ Transplant Family Support Program” in conjunction with Duke University Medical Center. This program assists families by providing financial resources to cover the expenses incurred by families during an organ transplant procedure – things such as lodging, transportation, meals and child care.
The program resonates deeply with Foster, whose father underwent an extensive medical procedure several years ago at Washington University in St. Louis, not far from Foster’s hometown of Nokomis, Illinois.
