ABOUT US
The Thomas H. Lutsey-Waseda Farms Scholarship integrates a passion for agriculture, education and innovation, steeped in a legacy of three generations, dating back nearly 90 years. A commitment to helping make college accessible and affordable for all families, paired with creativity and a love for farming makes the Thomas H. Lutsey-Waseda Farms Scholarship an important contributor to the future of Wisconsin agriculture.
Supporting the future of agriculture through education
The Thomas H. Lutsey-Waseda Farms Scholarship is a four-year $10,000 scholarship for students pursuing an agriculture career that will benefit our rural Wisconsin communities. Since its inception in 1986, the scholarship has awarded over $820,000 in gifts to nearly 125 college students committed to advancing the field of agriculture in northeast Wisconsin.
Thomas H. Lutsey was a strong believer in hard work and diligence being essential to success. He wanted to help students who had a passion for agriculture and a dedication to furthering their education to advance their local community. He created the scholarship foundation to encourage students to work hard, advance their education and realize their goals.
The scholarship is awarded over four years:
- Year 1: $2,000
- Year 2: $2,250
- Year 3: $2,500
- Year 4: $3,250
A generational commitment to farming
Thomas H. Lutsey worked hard on the family farm beginning as a young child in 1933. As an innovative man, he was interested in how things worked and liked to create new things. One of these innovations was to make ice cream and sell it on the same trucks as the milk delivery. Continuing to evolve his ideas even further, he then created the famous and popular “paddle pops” (ice cream on a stick, dipped in chocolate and rolled in nuts). By 1946, Thomas H. Lutsey established Gold Bond Ice Cream and continued to grow and expand the business of ice cream to include novelties and other favored treats, like the Eskimo Pie. His passion for innovation led to numerous patents and continued to advance the ice cream industry. Today, Gold Bond Ice Cream is now Good Humor-Breyers, and the ice cream products are sold in more than 40 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Canada.
In 2008, Thomas H. Lutsey’s son, Tom Lutsey, continued his father’s passion for the farm and purchased land in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, that is now Waseda Farms. The organic farm raises black angus and Hereford cattle, pork, chickens (both layers and fryers), turkeys and has a 2-acre garden in the summer. The organic farm has a storefront on the farm in Baileys Harbor and a butcher shop for walk-in and curbside pickup orders in De Pere, Wisconsin, as well as an online marketplace that provides nationwide shipping.
Waseda Farms is a certified organic, sustainable farm that encourages the best environmental practices, humane animal treatment and provides agricultural jobs to the community. More on Waseda Farms can be found at WasedaFarms.com.
