Pagan scholarship winner aims high

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As we previously reported, this year’s recipient of the Michigan Pagan Scholarship Fun is 18-year old Pete Ryland Shoda III of Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is the third scholarship awarded by the fund since it was created as the Tempest Smith Foundation closed its doors. Eligible scholarship applicants must be a high school senior or equivalent, and must be able to demonstrate that they have been a practicing Pagan for at least a year. They must submit two essays, one that is on a scholarly topic of the applicant’s choice, while the other discusses how Paganism has impacted the applicant’s life.

Pagan Community Notes: CalderaFest 2017, Michigan Pagan Fund, The Troth and more!

CalderaFest will be returning in 2017. The festival was a landmark event bringing together Pagan musicians from around the globe for four days of fun. Organizer David Banach said, “I decided to do CalderaFest again mostly because the first one was simply pure magic.” The 2016 festival was held in Lafayette, Georgia over May’s long Memorial Day weekend. Most attendees agreed that, despite the problems, CalderaFest was a unique and powerful experience .