Lodge Scholarship Co-Chair Brandy Kurtz announced that recipients of this year’s local Elks Most Valuable Student Awards were:
• Lance Rutledge — Big Sandy High School;
• Jessica King — Harlem High School;
• Morgan Friede — Chinook High School;
• Aliza Haney, Conner McKay & Scott Woods — Havre High School
The six local MVS winners were advanced to the Montana State Elks Association competition and out of the 134 statewide applicants, the MSEA reported that Lance Rutledge and Morgan Friede earned a state scholarship awards of $550.
“We are proud of all our participating high school students and their accomplishments and are pleased that the Elks can award scholarships to those local deserving students who take the time and effort to apply,” Havre Elks Co-Chair Linda Hoover said.
All of the student applicants are individually judged on scholarship, leadership, community service, honors and awards, employment, financial need and an original essay.
Hoover said the local competition is part of the Elks National Foundation Most Valuable Student scholarship program and that scholarship awards at the local, state and national level are all funded by the voluntary contributions of Elks members across the country, with the national awards totaling nearly $2.5 million to 500 deserving students.
