Jim Click and the Flinn Foundation were honored Friday with the Regents' Award from the board of regents for their work sending Arizona children to college.

Click, president of the Click Automotive Team and Arizona Bank's Chairman of the Board, began the program in 1995. Since then, 38 students have received a total of $88,900 for college.

The program provides assistance to dependent children of employees of either the bank or Click's dealerships. The parent must be with the company continuously for five years or more as a full-time employee. Students may attend any Arizona state university, community college or vocational school.

Each student can receive $3,000 a year for four years, or a total of $12,000. Students under five-year programs, such as engineering, can receive an additional year of assistance that does not exceed $15,000 over the five years.

There is no limit to the amount to be given out per year or per family, Click said.

"It doesn't matter how many kids they have," Click said, who estimated that he has 1,200 to 1,500 employees. "If a child qualifies for the program, they will get the assistance."

Click began the program in 1995 to provide educational assistance to the children of his employees.

Melinda Meinhausen, 21, is one of the scholarship recipients. She was not sure if she wanted to continue school after spending a semester in a human resources internship at Walt Disney World. Between tuition and books, she did not know if she could afford it.

Then Meinhausen received a scholarship from Click.

"The scholarship motivated me to continue," she said. "I could take as many classes as I wanted. Books were not a problem."

Meinhausen's father, Reynaldo Arrebollo, has been a service technician at Jim Click Ford for 19 years.

Arrebollo said he has two other children he hopes to send to college on the scholarship.

For Meinhausen, now in her third semester on the scholarship, the assistance means being able to complete her degree in communications. When she graduates in December 1998, she said she hopes to go back to Disney World.

The scholarship's other qualifications include reapplying each year and maintaining a minimum grade point average of 2.0.

The regents also honored the Phoenix-based Flinn Foundation, which over the past 21 years has awarded over $27 million in scholarships and other support to the state's three public universities.

Both Click and the Flinn Foundation are the first to receive the privately-funded Regents' Award, which now will be given to one individual or organization each year. A sculpture created by Chandler artist Jeff Hoffman, was presented to the honorees.

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