Kiwanis awards six scholarships
Last Wednesday at its weekly meeting, the Greater Pine Island Kiwanis awarded six more scholarships to local students.
President Joy Veatch welcomed everyone to the meeting followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, “Star Bangled Banner” and the Kiwanis mission statement – “Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world, one child and one community at a time.”
Carlyn Herring, chairman of the scholarship committee, introduced five of the six scholarship winners:
* Rebecca Cicoria: University of South Florida, studying gerontology.
* Kristiam Greenwell: FGCU to study nursing to become a neonatal nurse.
* Jessica Hill: University of Florida, studying technical theater, costumes, makeup and sound.
* Brittany Newman: FGCU in the fall to study missionary work.
* Gerilynn Rossman: Attending University of Florida studying biomedical engineering.
The other scholarship recipient, Jessy McLean, was not present at the meeting
“One of the best things about being on the scholarship committee are the interviews,” Herring said. “You wouldn’t believe how great these kids are. Every single one of them showed up very professionally dressed. The sit down, we ask them questions and they are so confident and self assured. I’d like to say how proud we all are of our scholarship winners and I want all of the parents to know that we know what it takes to get really great kids and these are really great kids.”
“I’ve been honored to receive this award several times,” Cicoria said. “I think it says a lot about our community that you can raise so much money to help students. Thank you so much.”
The Scholarship Committee consists of Herring, Joy Veatch, Nick and Jane Moore and Tonya Player.
Kiwanis updates:
Secretary Susan Saulsbery advised everyone about the upcoming pool party. The Pine Island Community Pool and Kiwanis of Pine Island have partnered to kick off summer with a pool party. The event was held Friday, June 24, from 5 to 7:45 p.m. There will be another pool party at the end of the season.
Mike Shevlin brought everyone up to date regarding the plan to replace the Taste of Pine Island with an event that would not be affected as much by weather.
“As you all know, we had to postpone and then finally cancel the Taste of Pine Island because of the heavy rains,” Shevlin said. “We’ve been working on an idea where people use a ‘Passport’ to eat at participating restaurants. This will be a sort of summer program where people can eat at their local restaurants on Tuesday nights with their ‘Passport’ and Kiwanis will receive a percentage of the profits for the scholarship fund.”
The Great Pine Island Kiwanis meets at Bert’s Bar & Grill at 4271 Pine Island Road in Matlacha every Wednesday at 8 a.m. For additional information, contact Veatch at 989-1840.