Thanks to scholarships, roughstock rider Jeff Stull, a Casper College freshman, just has to worry about school and rodeo, not how he's going to pay tuition or buy books.

"It helps out a lot. It makes it so I didn't have to pay anything. I just go to school," he said.

Stull has a rodeo team scholarship and also this year he was the college's first recipient of the new Chris LeDoux scholarship.

The endowment that provides the LeDoux scholarship is just one of a large variety of gifts the college received in its Infinite Possibilities campaign, which the college declared a success last week.

Donors gave $4.5 million, which was doubled under the Wyoming Community College Endowment Challenge program.

Under the program the college had until 2009 to raise the money, but it took only half the time allowed.

"The people that I've run across that contribute, they like the idea of being able to provide a service to the college, but they really like the idea of having the funds matched by the state," said Tom Parker, Stull's rodeo coach. "I think we have to commend the Legislature for coming up with that program."

Rodeo is just one example of the types of programs that will benefit.

The success of the campaign means there will be more modern equipment in health sciences classrooms, so nurses will be ready to practice in modern clinical settings.

There will be more money for music and other fine arts, and for the Tate Museum and the Goodstein Library to expand their collections.

It means more students will have scholarships to pay for their tuition, dorm rooms and books, as about 60 percent of the gifts were designated for scholarships.

Gifts were as varied as the college's programs, and will give a boost to the entire educational and programming infrastructure of the college, said Paul Hallock, executive director of the Casper College Foundation, which raises and invests money in the college's endowment funds.

The foundation began in 1962 and has helped build most of the buildings on campus, Hallock said.

"Nine million is a very significant fund. That's a big time deal," Hallock said.

At a return of 5 percent the fund would generate $450,000 a year, he said.

The foundation's next major project will be to assist in making the college's new master plan a reality. The plan spells out the direction of growth for the college over the next decades and calls for renovation, new buildings and landscaping on campus.

Rodeo coach Parker said maintaining good facilities is important in recruiting students.

The college used to have the nicest rodeo facilities in the state but over the past 10 to 15 years has been bypassed, he said.

That Casper College was able to raise $4.5 million in less than three years in a relatively quiet campaign speaks to broad support in the community, Hallock said, support that will be important as the college moves into its next phase of growth.

"Not everybody gave a ton of money, but you add it up and it adds up to a nice chunk of change," he said. "The bottom line is that we've got a community that loves this college. Two and three generations have gone through the institution. They recognize it's important to the community, to their families and to their businesses."

Many of the donors were older, established alumni, the "greatest generation," Hallock said. The college will have to continue to meet the evolving needs of today's students and donors to maintain a strong base of support, he said.

"That's one of the great challenges: How do we make it attractive to the next generation?"

Reach Barbara Nordby at (307) 266-0633 or at barbara.nordby@casperstartribune.net.