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Investing in the youth and their education, the Arvin and Lamont Kiwanis Club held their first scholarship banquet. More than 40 local students received financial awards for their academic achievements at the event.
“Two years ago, my mother founded the Arvin and Lamont Kiwanis Club,” said Olivia Calderon is the eldest daughter of Arvin’s late Mayor Olivia Trujillo.
“The reason this was so important to her was because she grew up in Arvin and there were very limited resources for our children,” explained Calderon.
In honor of her legacy, the club presented financial awards to students excelling in their education and demonstrating acts of leadership in their community.
One of the 500-dollar award recipients is Nueva High School Graduate Manuel Sabino.
“My brother was my father figure growing up and that’s who I looked up to,” said Sabino. “I always tried to be like him. He always won a lot of awards at school.”
At the time, Sabino said he was messing up in school, but an unfortunate event led him to turn his life around.
“He got a little partially blind, so that made me do better,” he said.
Sabino graduated on Wednesday with a 4.0 GPA and was also the class speaker.
At the Scholarship Night, the Arvin and Lamont Kiwanis Club also presented The Olivia Trujillo Legacy Award to Salvador Moreno—a graduating senior at Arvin High School.
“I was eating dinner with my family when I opened the email and I told my parents with a huge smile on my face,” said Moreno. “I felt very emotional when I told them, ‘Guess what, I won the scholarship.’ It was great to know. My parents were very proud of me—even my grandma too and my little brother.”
According to the club, their goal is to encourage the youth to pursue a higher education…no matter how young they may be.
“We also had elementary school kids and middle school kids receive a scholarship,” said Calderon. “These kids have a positive attitude and they’re also looking forward to one day being in high school, graduating, and going off to college.”
The Arvin and Lamont Kiwanis Club says they will continue to invest in student’s education, by offering annual scholarships.
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