Kiwanis awards 13 student scholarships
After a disappointing 2016 Taste of Pine Island, the Pine Island Kiwanis still managed to raise a substantial amount of money for student scholarships. The Kiwanis handed out 13 scholarships Wednesday morning.
“Every year we hold the Taste of Pine Island to raise funds for our scholarship program,” Carlyn Herring said. “We are very happy to report that we have given over $350,000 in scholarships so far. This year through no fault of our own the Taste of Pine Island was rained out. It was scheduled two different times and it just didn’t happen. So, we were all very upset because this scholarship program is our pride and joy about what we do.”
After the rescheduled event was finally cancelled, many sponsors and vendors of the event suggested that Kiwanis keep their deposit money. This provided a “jump-start” to the fundraising that would follow. Between sponsors and vendors, the Kiwanis fund for scholarships started around $7,000. Then F.I.S.H. (Fellow Islanders Sending Help) donated a check for matching funds that raised the scholarship fund to $14,000. And finally, other businesses and individuals stepped up with donations raising the total to $23,000.
“I want every scholarship recipient to know how this community has pulled together to tell you how proud we are of each and every one of you,” Herring said. “For every dollar raised there are probably 10 people involved.”
The scholarship recipients this year included, Kyle Skau, Johannah Wermerskirchen, Kaylee Brilhart, Cheyanne Rentsch, Margaret Valcarcel, Michael Schulte, Staci Stevens, Nicholas Bowler, Kendal Talbot, Junco Nelson, Leslie Boucherle, Brooke Benjamin and Dakotah Goetz.