United Way awards 10 scholarships to graduating seniors from 5 schools

Ten high school seniors in Orleans County were recently selected to receive the first of what will most likely become an annual award from United Way of Orleans County.

Earlier this spring, following a successful year in obtaining grants, the United Way board voted to award $500 scholarships each to two students in each of Orleans County’s five schools.

In July,  the scholarships were awarded to Colburn Spierdowis and Aisha Drisdom at Albion Central School; Andrew Drechsel and Julia Buck at Holley Central School; Ethan Kuhn and Madison Nardi at Kendall Central School; Isaac Becker and Lyndsey Snell at Lyndonville Central School; and Amanda Woodruff and Jacob Velesko at Medina Central School.

“The mission of United Way of Orleans County is be a connector of people, resources, ideas and funding to make our community stronger, and those students reflect and embrace that mission,” said Dean Bellack, executive director of United Way.

Criteria for receiving a scholarship was that each student must be heavily involved in community service and giving back, have good grades (not necessarily straight A’s), and be a good citizen.

“Rather than have students apply to us and we choose recipients, when we don’t know the students, we decided to have the schools pick the candidates,” Bellack said. “United Way is thrilled to be able to reward those who are giving back to their community.”