(above) Aubrey Bagdonas
Scotch Plains Fanwood Students Receive Scholarships from Lions Club
Aubrey Bagdonas and Ryan Ackerman, both of Scotch Plains were recently awarded Grausso/Bendel Memorial Scholarships from the Scotch Plains Lions Club. This scholarship is in memory of two former leaders of the Scotch Plains Lions Club – Norm Bendel and Tony Grausso.
This scholarship is awarded annually to a Scotch Plains Fanwood High School senior who plans to go to college. Preference is given to students who have demonstrated involvement in community service especially those causes dedicated to the blind and visually impaired. The Lions Clubs are the World’s largest and most active service organizations. They have more than 1.4 million members active in more than 43,000 Lions clubs around the world. They are dedicated to meeting a variety of their community’s needs with the association’s major service initiative being serving the blind and visually impaired.
Both Aubrey and Ryan were honor students at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School,
and both were involved in many community service activities.
Some of Aubrey’s community service activities included volunteering with the Mighty Ducks Special Olympics swim team where she taught some blind children how to swim. She will be attending Villanova University in the fall studying Business.
Ryan has been active as a volunteer in organizations supporting veterans and their pets. One of the activities has been to assist a blind veteran. Ryan will attend Penn State University in the fall majoring in Social Data Analytics.
For more information on the Scotch Plains Lions Club or to attend a meeting call the club’s president Barbara Anilo at 908-322-4472.
(above) Ryan Ackerman
