{"id":43070,"date":"2019-05-23T12:35:13","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T16:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=43070"},"modified":"2019-05-23T12:35:26","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T16:35:26","slug":"womens-club-hands-out-scholarships-to-single-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/05\/womens-club-hands-out-scholarships-to-single-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Club hands out scholarships to single parents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Paying\nfor college just got a little easier for some local parents, thanks to the\nGeneral Woman’s Club of Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\norganization held its scholarship awards ceremony on Friday, presenting six\nsingle parents who are returning to school with $1,250 scholarships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is\nan annual event held by the local organization, with all scholarship monies\nbeing derived from the members’ fundraising initiatives throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excited\nscholarship recipients were in attendance with their family and friends. This\nyear’s recipients included: Melissa Welch, Tiffany Smith, Sheena Ruffin,\nShemika Haynes, Emily Sparks and Marcia Waithe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nyear’s scholarship committee included scholarship chairman Harriet Metzler, Sue\nThompson, Glenda Turner and Karen Geckler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geckler\nmade opening comments and thanked everyone involved for their hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So\nproud of the work that this club has done this year,” Geckler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nGeneral Women’s Club of Lehigh has given scholarships for more than 30 years,\nwhich has helped countless single parents achieve their dreams of higher education.\nPrior to 2009, the scholarships were awarded to high school students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto Geckler, to date, the sum of the scholarships awarded comes to $103,500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This\nyear will be our largest scholarship awards to date. Today we are presenting\neach recipient with a certificate and the scholarship checks have been mailed\nto each school,” Geckler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nrecipient Tiffany Smith, who is currently attending Florida Southwestern State\nCollege, this allows her to get one step closer to her dream of becoming an RN\nand possibly working in labor\/delivery or pediatrics someday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto recipient Shemika Haynes, who is attending Rasmussen College, winning the\nscholarship confirms she is on the right path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\nwas shocked when I got the call. This can really help me in my pursuit of a\ndegree in Health Information Technology, so I can better provide for my\nkids,” Haynes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pursuing\na career in health care has a special meaning to Emily Sparks as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My\nson is disabled. I also lost a child, and almost my own life during delivery. I\nhad amazing nurse who took care of me in the hospital. She was a very nice\nperson and stayed with me throughout everything. It was right then and there\nthat I knew I wanted to become a nurse,” Sparks said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwomen’s club also awarded a special scholarship to Melissa Welch during the\nluncheon. The scholarship was in the memory of Barbara Eckenroth who received a\nscholarship from the club years ago to pursue her teaching degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welch\nis presently attending Florida Southwestern State College and volunteers her\ntime at Lehigh Elementary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\nwould like to teach grades K through second. I really want to reach children\nwhen they are young and give them a positive educational experience. One that\nwill stick with them throughout their lives,” Welch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nGeneral Women’s Club also awarded several philanthropic gifts to local\norganization’s including Hope Hospice and Rainbow Trails; Lehigh Acres Senior\nCenter, Lehigh Acres Community Center and Faith Lutheran Church and the\nChildren’s Village preschool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GWC\nholds numerous fundraisers throughout the year to enable the funding of the\nawards. One of the largest fundraisers is their fashion show held each spring,\nwhich draws more than 200 members of the community. The club also hosts a\nsilent auction, two quarter auctions, a tea party and several other events that\naid in helping to raise money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The General Woman’s Club of Lehigh Acres, Inc. was organized in January of 1961 and has provided 57 years of service to the community and remains very active. The organization’s theme is Working & Serving Together. For more information visit\u00a0www.facebook.com\/generalwomansclub<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paying for college just got a little easier for some local parents, thanks to the General Woman’s Club of Lehigh Acres. The organization held its scholarship awards ceremony on Friday,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}