Recipients and their families packed the dining room for the Rotary Scholarship Committee’s annual program. President Cleo opened the meeting promptly at 12:15 and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Past President Ben Wheeler was chorus leader in God Bless America and Janice Cassidy directed the Four- Way Test. Senor John Rice gave the Invocation.

 

Due to a full agenda, Cleo brought the meeting back to order early.

 

 

We sang Happy Birthday to Peg Millar and Susan Gove. Among our guests were Attorney Ken Murphy, Norm Olson and the Babcock Family.

 

 

 

Committee Chair Cindy Shanley announced that the 13 scholarship recipients would each receive $3000.The monies are mostly funded by Christmas Tree sales as well as the Genimatas and Joseph Shanley Scholarships. As 2018 Scholarship Recipient Mark Lovern notes, “In our house, Christmas doesn’t start until the Rotary Christmas tree trailer is up."

 

 

Mark, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, made a couple of brief opening remarks.Noting his first year in school has been amazing, he challenged the 2019 recipients to be open minded. He asked the students to be aware of diversity and those with different points of view.

 

 

Recipients boasted an impressive list of accomplishments. Isabelle Marin, bound for Colby College, was among the tops in her class and worked extensively with the homeless.

 

 

Renee Brown, headed to Brandeis University as a linguistics major, already speaks several languages.

 

 

Dayton University will welcome Chloe Lozan. A National Honor Society member and student athlete award recipient, Chloe will major in International Business.She has been deeply moved by the crisis in Venezuela and hopes to use her major to benefit others.

 

 

Leah Bauer will attend University of Vermont.She currently studies ballet and will be a nursing major.

 

 

Future American University freshman Maya Bailey was on the PHS swim Team and a National Honor Society member.

 

 

Nick Shultz started his own business, played three sports and volunteered for many organizations. He credits a strong family for his success as he heads off to Penn State University.

 

 

Emily Locandero, soon to be a nursing major at Penn, was also a scholar athlete and National Honor Society member.At 13, she ran a marathon to raise money to dig wells in Africa.

 

 

Zoe Dumais was a student council member and will major in Dietetics and Psychology at University of Vermont.

 

 

Another National Honor Society member, Jessica Simanjuntak, was accepted at six college, but ultimately chose Brown University. She was also a student council member as well as a student tutor.

 

 

Described as “compassionate leader” by one of her teachers, Isabelle Romero is attending Lipscomb University.

 

 

Hunter Winsor works at Portsmouth Toyota, selling a remarkable 75 cars to date.Well -spoken and confident, Hunter has enrolled at Emmanuel College majoring in Business Administration.

 

 

Another National Honor Society and Student Council Member and varsity athlete, Claire Hoag is going to be a Secondary Education major at Gordon College.

 

 

Student Athlete Matthew Lovern currently holds a part time job.He has been accepted into West Virginia University’s Honors Aerospace Engineering program.

 

 

As the meeting closed, several Rotarians noted that these students give us reason to hope for the future.

 

Postscript---This is my last Scribe du Jour submission.Over the years, I did not attempt to be accurate but rather strived to editorialize, provide comedic value and offer " fake news".

 

Respectfully submitted, Everett Eaton