McCauley-Rice Scholarship Fund
McCauley-Rice Folk Dance Scholars have enriched the local folkdance community since 1979. Nearly 40 dancers have attended camps at Stockton and Mendocino, or have attended Balkanalia! in Portland on these scholarships and they have returned to share what they have learned in Oregon and around the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Many scholarships have been granted over the years to young dancers who wanted to attend folkdance workshops and camps. Their participation always makes a big difference in the recipients’ love of folkdancing and their infusion of new dances to the Hoolyeh folkdance community. If interested in applying for a scholarship, contact: scholarships@hoolyeh.com
The scholarship was established in memory of two dancers who were active with the Hoolyeh program for many years, Jim McCauley and Hildred Rice.
Betty McCauley, 1927 – 2023
Betty started the scholarship program in 1978 after her husband, Jim McCauley, died. She added Hildred Rice to the scholarship program after Hildred died. Betty was a very active and vital participant of the Hoolyeh Folkdancers in Corvallis, Oregon.
Jim McCauley 1920-1978
Jim McCauley met his wife, Betty, dancing at UW in the late 1940s. They danced together and raised their kids dancing with Hoolyehs in Corvallis. Over the years, they drove scores of young children and teenagers to parties and festivals around the Pacific Northwest—driving home in the wee hours of the morning while piles of kids slept in the back of the station wagon (before seat belts, of course)
Hildred Rice 1907-1998
Hildred Rice ran Hoolyeh folk dancing through Corvallis Parks and Recreation from the 1960s through the mid-1970s. She got hundreds of kids up and dancing, teaching young children on Saturday mornings, teens and adults on two weekday evenings. During 1970-72, 140 high school students danced every Thursday evening as she ran the music for them. Several summers she rode along in her car as teens drove to Stockton Folk Dance Camp on a scholarship she funded, in part, by selling hundreds of placemats. Hildred’s dancers from those years help to run the annual Hoolyeh and Friends Folkdance Party.