PHOTO BY BARB BARRETT/The Luminary Left to right back row: Tom Donofrio, Diane Santo, Michael Pawlik, Ron Boose and Diane Egly, members of the GHBA, presented scholarships to 3 seniors (front center): Garrett Gregoire, Rachel Reitz and Jordanna Wagner on June 18 at the Country Fork Restaurant.

HUGHESVILLE – On Thursday, June 18, at the Country Fork restaurant, scholarships were presented to 3 Hughesville High School seniors for their winning essays and outstanding community involvement selected by the Greater Hughesville Business Association (GHBA).

This year it was a tough decision to make according to Bob Titman from the scholarship committee. “We had to narrow down the applications to three good ones. It got real close,” said Titman who explained that all of the entries, over 15 of them were good ones. The most qualified were chosen not only for their excellent academic records, but for their outstanding community service.

Normally only two scholarships are awarded, but this year a third one was given due to the outstanding applications. Therefore, additional funds were provided by three of the business members, Tom Donofrio from Edward Jones Financial, Tom Montgomery from TJ’s Market, and Ron Boose from R&T Machine. The three business owners were presented with a distinguished member award during the dinner held in honor of the scholarship winners.

This year the top scholarships went to Garrett Gregoire and Rachel Reitz who received one thousand dollars each and a third scholarship for $600 went to Jordanna Wagner.

“This is an exception, not something we normally do,” announced GHBA president, Suzanne Holmes regarding the third recipient. “The top two girls were so close, it was almost a tie.”

The committee said that they had a difficult time determining a boy for the scholarship as most of the best qualified entries came from girls. In the past a scholarship was always given to one of each gender, but it was decided at the May meeting starting next year to award scholarships to the top two winners, regardless of their sex.

The scholarship committee met during May to determine the winning scholars and looked for applications that met with the following traits: tenacity, passion, vision, risk takers, self confidence and leadership.

“They all came in real close,” added Donofrio who was one of the main organizers of the event.