Photo by George Wacha

Candidates announced at reception

Thirty-one outstanding area high school seniors and their families will assemble for a banquet at the Greenville First Baptist Church on Thursday, May 3.

The special occasion will be the fourth annual Achiever Award ceremony, which is slated to be held in the church's Family Life Center.

Monday night the students and their families met for an organizational meeting at Greenville's First Baptist Church. The purpose of the meeting was to inform the nominees and their families about the upcoming awards, and take the opportunity to meet and get to know one another.

"This is the largest number of nominees we have ever had," said Co-Chairman Tim Dunsford, who added that all five area high schools, Greenville High, McKenzie High, Georgiana High, Greenville Academy and Fort Dale Academy

have students as nominees.

Dunsford explained the criteria for the students to be nominated for this prestigious award.

"There are four components to earn nomination: a student has to maintain a high grade point average; they must have lettered in a sport at least one year prior to their senior year; they must participate in a sport during their senior year and they must be involved in church activities and community activities, such as volunteer work, for example," Dunsford said.

"Each of the 31 young men and women, along with their parents, will go through an interviewing process.

"Five judges from other parts of the state will spend ten minutes with each student and an equal amount of time talking with their parents," he said.

Dunsford said one young man and one young lady will be chosen as the winner from the pool of 31 nominees and those two winners will be announced the evening of the banquet, These "Achievers" will each receive a cash scholarship.

All the nominees will receive plaques, caps, T-shirts and a videotape of the banquet as a remembrance of their special honor.

"There is so much negative publicity about our young people in this country-we are proud to be recognizing 31 great kids right here in Butler County who are contributing positively in their schools, churches and communities," said Dunsford.

Ron Stallworth, former Auburn University defensive back and professional football player for the New York Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs Speaker for the Achiever Award banquet will be the featured guest speaker. Tickets for the banquet will be $10 each and are slated to go on sale by March 21.

Tickets will be available through the Greenville Area Chamber of Commerce.