Disabled Workers Commitee Announces $10,000 Scholarship in Honor of Matthew Shafner

The Disabled Workers Committee, Inc. has announced a $10,000 scholarship in honor of Matthew Shafner. The Committee is a Connecticut-based not-for-profit organization whose mission is to help impaired workers. Shafner, a nationally recognized attorney and former Chairman of the Disabled Workers Scholarship Subcommittee, passed away in September 2015. The scholarship will assist a child of a worker totally disabled in the workplace who lives in Connecticut go to college.

The scholarship has been awarded since 1993. In 2016, it has been renamed The Matthew Shafner Memorial Scholarship for Sons and Daughters of Disabled Workers.

The 2016 scholarship will provide one $10,000 award to be divided evenly over four years of college ($1,250 per semester). It will be given to the student demonstrating both academic excellence and financial need.

Matthew Shafner was recently described as "a legal giant and humanitarian who broke new ground with asbestos, maritime injury, and workers compensation cases" by The Day. He was only the ninth person to receive the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award since the Association was formed in 19954. In 2015, U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers in America recognized Shafner as "Lawyer of the Year."

"The pressures that fall on disabled workers and their families are tremendous," explained Matthew Shafner in 2010 when he was Chairman of the Committee. "This scholarship fund eases one of the important financial burdens that disabled workers often face." 

Applications are available throughout Connecticut in the offices of high school guidance counselors, labor unions, and Workers Compensation Commission offices. They should be received by April 1, 2016 at the Scholarship Fund Disables Workers Committee, Inc., c/o Suisman Shapiro Attorneys-at-Law, 2 Union Plaza, Suite 200, New London, CT 06320. A statewide committee of independent prominent educators will select the successful students.

The Disabled Workers Committee, Inc. educates the public about helping impaired workers return to their workplace as soon as possible. The Committee is co-sponsored by the Connecticut State Medical Society and the New London County Medical Association.