The Ada Kiwanis Club awarded academic scholarships to six members of the Ada High School graduating class of 2019 at the annual Senior Awards Honor Dinner on May 15.
Kiwanis President Joe Ferguson presented the scholarships to Kama Arn, Rob Allison, Raina England, Cade Mullins, Sumaya Tasnim and Keli Trudeau.
Ferguson said, “The Ada Kiwanis Club has been serving the Ada community for 95 years by raising funds for worthy causes. The International focus of Kiwanis International is “Serving the Children of the World.”
He added: "Our club has chosen to provide six academic scholarships to deserving students to help them realize their dreams.
Ken Blanchard, Director of Allen County Literacy, last week spoke to the Ada Kiwanis Club about volunteering to be a literacy tutor. He noted the following statistics:
• 50% of the chronically unemployed have poor literacy skills.
• The U.S. Military spends $70 million per year in teaching basic skills to recruits.
• 75% of the U.S. prison inmates do not have a high school diploma.
• It is estimated that limited literacy costs the U.S. businesses and taxpayers $20 billion in lost business earnings, wages and taxes.
The Ada Lions Club awarded academic scholarships to five members of the Ada High School graduating class of 2019 at the annual Senior Awards Honor Dinner on May in the Ada schools cafeteria.
Ada Lions Club Scholarship Chair Robert C. Simmons presented the scholarships to: Anabel Alexander-$1,000, Miguel Jordan-$1,000, Brendan Sheridan-$1,000, Keli Trudeau-$1,000, and Austin Amburgey received the Dick Counts memorial scholarship (in honor of long time Lions member who lost his life this year) $1,500.
The $5,500 of scholarships brought the total for the Lions Club since 2000 to 91 students being awarded $81,450.
Valedictorians and salutatorian
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Ada High School will honor its graduates of the class of 2019 on Sunday, May 26, at 2 p.m. in the high school gymnasium.
At the Senior Honor Awards ceremony on Wednesday, May 15, it was announced that Austin Amburgey, Jake Colwell, Brice Ferguson and Cade Mullins have earned the honor of Valedictorians, while Miguel Jordan was named Salutatorian.
