Nearly $600K given out at awards night

By MAKAYLA TENDALL
m.tendall@beeherald.com

Greene County High School seniors received almost $600,000 in scholarship money at Tuesday night’s award ceremony.

The students — dressed in the caps and gowns they’ll wear Sunday — filed into the auditorium to receive scholarships.

“If all the money is used, it would be about $595,000,” said Ruth Broman, high school counselor.

Many students were surprised with the awards they were given. Presenters from community and county organizations handed certificates to students as they walked across the stage.

Some community businesses have a long-standing tradition of congratulating high school graduates, said Mary Wolterman with Home State Bank.

For nearly 40 years, Wolterman said, the bank used to hand out dictionaries to a select group of graduates, but stopped the tradition about five years ago because Wolterman said students preferred the Internet to hard copies. ​

The bank continues to award one senior boy and girl with $1,000 scholarships, however. Wolterman said the winners are chosen from a group of about 30 applicants by the bank’s scholarship committee.

“They look at what classes they’ve taken, their grade points, their school activities,” Wolterman said. “We try to stay away from the high grade point. We go for more of the medium grade point because the higher grade points tend to get the larger scholarships, and we don’t want any of the kids to be forgotten.”

Greene County High’s graduation ceremony begins at 2 p.m. Sunday at the middle school with former administrator Tom Yepsen as commencement speaker.

In Churdan that day, the Paton-Churdan ceremony will also begin at 2 p.m. at the high school with Chris Petersen, middle school and high school social studies teacher, elected by students as commencement speaker.