Rotary Club announces scholarship winners
Atlanta Area Rotary Club has been busy, again, or should I say, still? Every spring we face the challenging task of selecting our scholarship winners. We had close to 30 applications, which means that’s not an easy job. Thanks to Doug Saffel and his team of Kate Stow, Amanda Jackson and Meredith McLeod Dunton, six winners were named.
Atlanta High School:
Madison Ryan walked away with the coveted Peter Van Bergh $5000 scholarship. Madison plans to attend the University of Texas in Tyler and become a nurse working in labor and delivery. Eventually she’d like to get her masters in midwifery. Her parents, Kenda and William Mackie, are proud of this “first generation” high school graduate and college student. Madison received her scholarship from Rotarian Doug Saffel.
Queen City High School:
Rotarian Kate Stow, a graduate of Queen City High School presented the scholarships to: Kaden Fincher received a $1000 scholarship to attend Kilgore College. Kaden is the son of Brian and Kasi Fincher. Kaden is the first recipient of Atlanta Area Rotary Club’s “Trade and Technical School Award.”
Trent Granberry received a $1000 scholarship to the University of Texas at Dallas. Trent is the son of Gaye and Jim Granberry and plans to pursue a degree in mass communications as well as run track and field.
Karlee Sullivan is the recipient of another $1000 scholarship and she will use it to help with expenses at Texas A&M in Texarkana where she’ll pursue a nursing degree. Eventually Karlee would like to become an anesthesiologist. Her proud parents are Robert and Mandy Rich and Adam & Denise Sullivan.
Claire Wong received the Jackie Icenhower Interact Scholarship of
$1000. Claire plans to major in biomedical engineering. Claire will call College Station home when she attends Texas A&M this fall. Claire is the daughter of Paul and Ivy Wong.
All four of these recipients have been actively involved with Queen City Interact Club, which is sponsored by Atlanta Area Rotary Club. That means they’ve done a lot of good deeds in their school and community. They’ve been a delight to work with while picking up trash in front of their school. Their teacher is Kendra Clayton.
McLeod High School:
Carlee Heldt will take her $1000 scholarship to Texas A&M in College Station to major in zoology and maybe get her master’s degree also. Carlee would like to become a research scientist for wildlife conservation or work with animals in a zoo. Her parents are Chad and Janeen Heldt. Unfortunately, at press time, a photo was not available. Meredith McLeod Dunton, an alumae of McLeod HS, presented the award to Carlee.
Atlanta Area Rotary Club has given over $210,000 in scholarships since 2004. And that’s worthy of bragging rights! Another “job” we’ve had for several years is cooking breakfast for the Queen City seniors’ all-night celebration. What fun to get up at 2 a.m. and fry bacon and pancakes! (This was also done at Atlanta when they had “Project Graduation.”
We are also pleased to announce the appearance of our United States flags along W Main Street starting for the July 4th Independence Day celebration. If you live/work in this part of town, please call me if you didn’t get a flyer about this event. Just for the record: we would love to have Rotary Assistants, and you can also call me about that.
Trash continues to appear, disappear, appear, etc. It’s really not fun to keep picking up trash, but the feeling is so great to see the street clean of trash for 15 minutes or so! Again, Rotary Assistants would be welcome! This is our AREA and we are proud to be the Atlanta AREA Rotary Club putting service above self. Call me for meeting times/place on the first/third Thursdays each month. Fern Porter, 903.691-9717.