The Territorial Sportsmen Scholarship Foundation, Inc. has awarded over $1.37 million to 254 local students since the 1953 derby.

"I think the (past) Board of Directors decided that the (scholarship) program was a good way to return to the community the benefits of the derby participants' efforts," says Malin Babcock, president of the Territorial Sportsmen Scholarship Foundation. "It certainly was a wise, successful decision."

Even if derby fish sales are low, the foundation will be able to give away scholarships. The fund has grown from investments to more than $800,000.

Babcock was one of the early scholarship recipients herself, earning a scholarship in 1957. She went on to become a NOAA biologist at the Auke Bay lab. Other past scholarship recipients are now scientists, commercial fishermen and businessmen. Many have chosen careers reflecting their common interest in the outdoors but some are excelling in other fields.

Dennis Kaill, 43, who received a Territorial Sportsmen Scholarship in 1983, has been making a big impact in Seattle's business community. The Puget Sound Business Journal in 2004 named Kaill one of Seattle's "40 under 40" entrepreneurs. Currently he is president and COO of a start-up software company called Pharmitas.

Kaill graduated from Oregon State with a Bachelor of Science but decided to pursue a career in business. He was admitted to Cornell Business School and says he would not have been able to attend had he not received scholarship money for his college education.

"When I look at what I've done in my career, a lot of it had to do with getting into an Ivy League institution for business school," he said. "I am confident that I would have been so burdened with debt (without the scholarship) that I would have been unable to pay that.

Kaill has been a lifetime member of the Territorial Sportsmen and continues to engage in outdoor activities.

"I've got two little kids, they're eight and five," Kaill said. "A lot of my exercise is chasing them around. We do all the normal fishing, hiking and camping."

Becky Hinman, 44, a veterinary technician at the Gastineau Humane Society, received a scholarship in 1982. She graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a major in art and a minor in biology before eventually earning a degree in veterinary technology.

"(The scholarship) was what allowed me to stay in school that first couple of years, which was extremely nice," Hinman said. "It allowed me to keep going when (money) was pretty tight."

Hinman has been an active outdoorswomen since her childhood and taught skiff-handling and riflery at the Department of Fish and Game's "Becoming an Outdoors Woman" program offered in Haines in early August.

When time permits, she stays involved with Territorial Sportsmen projects and events.

Besides overseeing the scholarships, Babcock has spent the last 20 years working each derby as one of its officials. It's the volunteers, she said, who keep things running smoothly.