In honor of the day that would have been Diamond’s 44th birthday, we released

The Oscar Chaplin, III Foundation for Education & Athletics 2024-2025 Level-Up Awards

You may access the application here.

If you ever saw Oscar a.k.a. Diamond at a competition, you were quite likely to see his (our) father, Big “O,” not too far behind.  Big O provided spiritual, mental, and physical support to Diamond and anyone else at the competition…or in close, or not-so-close proximity, especially if they were feeling pain. This snippet of a backstory is to provide a tiny bit of context for you as you consider your nomination.

What does a student, an athlete, and especially a student-athlete, need these days to be successful for getting to the next level?  

• Parent/Guardian travel and/or housing support, especially in the case of minor-aged athletes on travel teams?
• Money for membership fees for a promising athlete in-need, who will benefit from being on a pay-to-play team?
• Money for learning support materials for a star student who has fallen on tough times or whose family finances are already tight?
• Funds for tutoring a student-athlete at odd hours when on competition travel?
• Money for gear?

Please tell us what your needs are! These awards will provide support for Diamonds-In-The-Rough and diamonds having a rough time so that they may level-up in their achievement.

Please be considerate in your request and do your best to keep requests below $1,000, requests above $1,000 should be very well-justified.  If you are only in need of support to cover fuel costs to a regional day competition to provide parental support, that is just as fund-able and important as providing support for any larger request. We anticipate being able to award approximately $5,000 total in awards for the 2024-2025 cycle and we want to be able to provide as many awards as possible.  Funds that you request must be spent by 29 February 2025.

Applications can be submitted by the recipient or on behalf of the recipient. Please provide your best complete responses for the information below. Note that there is a recommendation letter required, so ask your recommender as early as you can.

Preview the questions here.

Deadline for submission of all elements (application, budget, and recommendation letter) is midnight Pacific on March 22nd, 2024.  East Coast folks, that means 03:00/3:00 a.m. on March 23rd.

Please email Jim Chaplin or Sue Ebanks at TheOC3Foundation@gmail.com with any questions that you may have.  You may also visit us on Facebook or on our website for information on The Foundation. 

The Oscar Chaplin, III Foundation for Education & Athletics, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization that is supported and funded through the efforts and gifts of our Partners and Contributors. Thank you!