Belleville Rotary Club presents six $5,000 scholarship awards

On May 21, the Rotary Club of Belleville held its 79th – annual scholarship program. In a gathering at Belleville High School which included school administrators, parents, family and the Belleville Rotarians, six $5,000 scholarships were awarded to Belleville-area resident graduates.
The four academic scholarships went to Chole Collins, Madison Leeds, Parker Mears, and Thomas Okubo. The Charles B. Cozadd Award for service to school and other students was received by Kelly Montgomery and the Donald Juchartz Award for community service was presented to Ellie Kerrigan.
In the meeting, Belleville Rotary Club president Corrine Flynn offered a welcome, an explanation of what Rotary is, and summary of club activities helping individual citizens, communities and other charities in carrying on their work. She included a list of significant world individuals who had been Rotarians.
A highlight of the meeting was an encouraging talk by 34th District Court Judge Lisa M. Martin who discussed the importance to the scholarship recipients of remembering thankfully those of any level who were there to help and guide them in their success.
Each of the awardees thanked Rotary and introduced their family members in attendance.
After the presentations, event coordinator Mary Jo Suchy thanked all the attendees, the scholarship committee and any others whose work made the evening possible.
Since inception, Rotary Club of Belleville has awarded $672,500 to Belleville High School students in the club’s scholarship program. This year, as in recent years, the primary funding source for the program has been the Charles B. Cozadd Rotary Foundation which assists the club in the funding many of its projects.