ONCE AGAIN THE HPOU EDUCTION COMMITTEE carried out the highest priority on its duty list – the annual presentation of the Union’s scholarships to the graduating seniors who are the sons and daughters of HPOU members.
Each of these college-bound young men and women were the centers of attraction at the breakfast held in their honor on Saturday, April 27 at the Breck Porter Building. Among the qualifications was the submission of an essay on the topic of whether teaches should be armed in their classrooms.
The Saturday morning event drew 87 scholarship winners and their proud HPD parents. The scholarship payments totaled $45,500. An extra special touch added to this year’s amount was $475 received in memory of retired HPD Sgt. Al Baker in lieu of flowers. Sgt. Baker succumbed to non-Hodgkins Lymphoma on March 21, two days after his 61st birthday. He had a soft spot in his heart for the HPOU Scholarship, especially since his daughter Kristina was a one-time recipient.
The contributions made it possible to upgrade two of the scholarships presented this year from $250 to $500. See the story about Sgt. Baker in this issue.
Reports from the scholarship presentation scene described the crowd as “happy, excited, loving the food.” Plus the fact that there was plenty of scholarship funds distributed among these ambitious individuals bound for schools across the state of Texas and other states.
The Badge & Gun would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Education Committee Chairperson Rhonda Williams and each of her stalwart committee members who made this annual recognition ceremony a lasting memory for all participants.
And those committee members are Eric Carr, Joe Castaneda, Frances Domingues, Norma Lazo, Dan Levine, Kawanski Nichols, Nhatthien Nguyen, David Riggs, James Rucus, Robert Sandoval and Rosalinda Ybanez.
Atta girl! Atta boy!
And that goes for all of the above – the committee members and, especially, the college-bound scholarship winners!