On May 24, the Belleville Rotary Club held its 71st Annual Scholarship Award Program.
Ten scholarships of $2,000 each were awarded to Belleville High graduates. The club recognized seven recipients of first-time scholarships and three recipients of second-year, renewal scholarships.
First-year scholarship recipients (class of 2016) are: Jared Bellingham, Brandon Bond, Bianca Crowder, Justin Green, Leah Hardy, Jayla Jackson, and Kameron Owen.
Renewal scholarships were awarded to Vernice Lowe, Emily Mall, and Haley Richardson.
After welcoming remarks and an overview of Rotary’s scope and purpose, a brief history of the club’s scholarship program was presented by club president Julie Hardy.
Rotarian Debra Juchartz outlined the proceedings of the evening and offered greetings to the numerous local dignitaries in attendance.
Juchartz, who is also the chair of the club Scholarship Committee, then introduced featured speaker Elizabeth Smith Yeats who is a recent Past District Governor for Rotary International District 6400, of which the Belleville club is a member.
Smith Yeats’ presentation, directed primarily at the student awardees, stressed that each individual has his or her own life story to live. Everyone’s is different and yet most can be based on much of the simple truths found in Robert Fulghum’s book “All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
Taking examples from her own life story, Smith Yeats encouraged the awardees to be willing to be surprised, to change if original plans are not working, and to take time off when they’re ill.
After Past District Governor Smith Yeats talk, each of the scholarship recipients gave a brief biographical summary and commented on their plans and hopes for the future.
Since its inception, Belleville Rotary has awarded $470,000 to BHS students as part of the 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 or partial funding of many of its projects.