by JON ANDERSON
May 9, 2024
7:26 PM
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Service Club President Bonnie Campbell congratulates Spain Park High School senior Zoey Benda on her scholarship at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
The Hoover Service Club gave out scholarships and awards to 10 students at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Front row from left are Hoover High seniors Sara Hancock, Garrett Brasher, Kenia Perez Castillo, Michael Fleming and Aden Walton and Spain Park High School senior Zoey Benda. On the back row, from left, are Spain Park High seniors Madison Broadnax, Irene Benda and Wesley Vice. Not pictured is Natalia Gomez Sandoval.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Service Club President Bonnie Campbell congratulates Spain Park High School senior Madison Broadnax on her scholarship at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
The Hoover Service Club gave out academic excellence and citizenship awards to Hoover middle school students at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. On the front row, from left, are Berry Middle School citizenship winner Matthew Asher McBridge, Simmons Middle School academic winner Colin Keppley and Bumpus Middle School citizenship winner Vedika Sharma. On the back row, from left, are Berry Middle School academic winner Natalie Bishop, Simmons Middle School citizenship winner Christian Alvarez and Bumpus Middle School academic winner Hamzah Zahid.
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Hoover schools Superintendent Kevin Maddox congratulates Hoover Service Club scholarship and award winners at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
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Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato poses for a photo with students who won scholarships and awards from the Hoover Service Club at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
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Hoover Service Club member Hope Lawson, left, hands a scholarship certificate to Hoover High senior Sara Hancock at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
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Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato speaks at the Hoover Service Club’s scholarship luncheon at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
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Deborah Thomas, left, and Tricia Naro, co-chairwomen of the Hoover Service Club’s scholarship committee, give remarks at the club’s scholarship luncheon at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
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Hoover Service Club member Rhonda Boyd introduces the club’s 2024 scholarship recipients at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Helping congratulate the winners are, from left, club President Bonnie Campbell, Mayor Frank Brocato and Hoover City Schools Superintendent Kevin Maddox
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Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato speaks at the Hoover Service Club’s scholarship luncheon at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
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Hoover Service Club 2023-24 President Bonnie Campbell welcomes people to the club’s scholarship luncheon at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
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Incoming Hoover Service Club President Debra Taylor accepts the gavel to begin her term at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
The Hoover Service Club today gave out more than $49,000 in scholarships and awards to 10 Hoover and Spain Park high school students and honored six middle school students for exemplary academic performance and citizenship.
Tricia Naro, co-chairwoman of the club’s scholarship committee, said the scholarship recipients were chosen based on the academic records, school activities, community service and leadership.
Here are this year’s scholarship winners from Hoover High School, the institutions they plan to attend and their expected fields of study:
Here are this year’s scholarship winners from Spain Park High School, the institutions they plan to attend and their expected fields of study:
The Service Club also gave out two awards to a senior from each high school who understands the importance of serving their community.
The Margaret Alford Community Service Award, named after a former Service Club member who had a passion for giving back to the community, when to Hancock of Hoover High.
Hancock has accumulated 1,489 community service hours. Her mother passed away in 2019 from breast cancer, and she turned her grief into something positive, co-founding a nonprofit called To The Fullest Foundation that provides tools for people to learn about breast cancer, Service Club member Gwen Grasso said. Through the foundation, Hancock and a team of 34 people have reached more than 500,000 people across social media platforms and raised thousands of dollars for their cause, Grasso said. She also has a podcast called “Speaking Our Grief.”
Hancock is the state president of DECA, a nonprofit that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. She also is on the girls varsity bowling team, a founder of the Writing Club and a member of Teens Need Teens.
Wesley Vice of Spain Park High School received the Ardith McMicken Community Service Award, also named after a former Service Club member with a strong record of service.
Vice, who plans to attend Troy University and major in finance and accounting, has participated in three mission trips through his church, Grasso said. The most impactful was the trip to Slovenia, where his group organized camps for kids, she said. Vice brought back an appreciation for living in the United States as a result of those trips, she said.
Vice is a DECA officer and placed first in the 2023 DECA state competition. He also was a member of the school’s cross-country and track and field teams.
Photo by Jon Anderson
The Hoover Service Club gave out scholarships and awards to 10 students at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. Front row from left are Hoover High seniors Sara Hancock, Garrett Brasher, Kenia Perez Castillo, Michael Fleming and Aden Walton and Spain Park High School senior Zoey Benda. On the back row, from left, are Spain Park High seniors Madison Broadnax, Irene Benda and Wesley Vice. Not pictured is Natalia Gomez Sandoval.
This is the second year in a row that the amount of the Service Club scholarships and awards has increased. Last year, the amount rose from $28,000 to $38,500, and this year it climbed to $49,000. That’s due to successful Hoover Service Club fundraisers and the generosity of donors in the 2022-23 club year, said Debra Taylor, the incoming president of the club.
This past year, the club has raised $65,000 that can go toward scholarships and community service grants to charities in the club’s 2024-25 year, Taylor said.
The Service Club also on Thursday recognized one student from each of Hoover’s three middle schools for outstanding citizenship and one student from each middle school for outstanding academics.
The middle school citizenship awards went to Matthew Asher McBride of Berry Middle, Vedika Sharma of Bumpus Middle and Christian Alvarez of Simmons Middle, while the academic awards went to Natalie Bishop of Berry, Hamzah Zahid of Bumpus and Colin Keppley of Simmons.
Photo by Jon Anderson
The Hoover Service Club gave out academic excellence and citizenship awards to Hoover middle school students at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024. On the front row, from left, are Berry Middle School citizenship winner Matthew Asher McBridge, Simmons Middle School academic winner Colin Keppley and Bumpus Middle School citizenship winner Vedika Sharma. On the back row, from left, are Berry Middle School academic winner Natalie Bishop, Simmons Middle School citizenship winner Christian Alvarez and Bumpus Middle School academic winner Hamzah Zahid.
Deborah Thomas, the other chairwoman of the scholarship committee, encouraged the scholarship recipients to come back to Hoover to share their gifts and talents when the complete their studies because, thus far, they have proven to be civic-minded, hard-working students.
“You are a special person with many talents and abilities,” Thomas said. “Never allow yourself to get discouraged and think that your contributions are insignificant. … Always remember the most important part of who you are is what’s inside of you.”
The scholarships and awards were presented to the winners at a luncheon at the Hoover Country Club, with representatives from their families, their schools, the Hoover school system central office, Hoover Board of Education, city of Hoover and Hoover Service Club present.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato and Hoover schools Superintendent Kevin Maddox thanked the Service Club for raising money to support the young people and their efforts to obtain more education.
Brocato said the Service Club has a long history of providing financial assistance and support to Hoover’s public safety departments, schools and students. He joined Thomas in encouraging students to return to Hoover when they finish college. “We need you here,” he said. “Come back and give to your community.”
Maddox, who is in his first year with Hoover City Schools, said the district has some amazing students who are very smart and talented.
“We’re so blessed to have a community that believes in education and empowers our kids to be successful,” he said.
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover schools Superintendent Kevin Maddox congratulates Hoover Service Club scholarship and award winners at the Hoover Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
He said he remembers teaching his daughters how to ride a bicycle without training wheels and how he had to give them a little push to give them some momentum so they could keep their balance and move forward. The same is true in life, he said.
“Scholarships help create that momentum,” Maddox said. “You never know what it may lead to. I was the beneficiary of scholarships that changed my path in life. Who knows where I would be today without those scholarships? It’s going to push you into places with people you didn’t know could help you, and it’s a great opportunity to expand opportunities.”
Maddox said everyone needs a little push from time to time. He’s thankful the Hoover school board believed in him to hire him as superintendent in August of last year when he had never been a lead superintendent before.
“They could have easily chosen someone else to give that push, but they chose to give it to me, and I am extremely grateful for that opportunity,” he said.
Maddox told the seniors receiving scholarships and awards that they have been blessed with an opportunity to be brought up in one of the top school districts in the state and country and well prepared to move on in life.
“Don’t be constrained by what your family members have done in the past, what they were able to achieve or what you think you can achieve,” he said. “You can do anything you want to do. … It’s really just about whether you set your mind to it or not.”
Maddox also encouraged the students, now that they have received a push, to seek to become the people that give a push to others. “That comes with experience, and it comes with time, but you are perfectly capable,” he said. “You have been built and prepared for this moment.”
by JON ANDERSON
May 9, 2024
7:26 PM
Hoover Sun LLC
