RANGELEY — Brooke Egan and Leonardo (Leo) Javier Perez III are co-winners of the Seasonal Friends of Rangeley Scholarship for 2019, and Venessa Rose Bisson won the Rangeley Lakes Area Legacy Scholarship.
The honors were announced during the Rangeley Lakes Regional School graduation June 8.
Egan and Perez each will receive a multi-year stipend totaling $3,500, and Bisson will get $500 helping them pay their college tuition. All three students were recognized for their strong academic records, school activities and community service, which is a major criterion in selecting scholarship recipients.
The Seasonal Friends of Rangeley Scholarship, in its 23rd year, is funded by visitors to, and seasonal residents of, the Rangeley Lakes region. The Legacy Scholarship is supported by permanent residents of the area who contribute in honor or memory of an individual — living or deceased.
Egan says growing up with, and overcoming, a medical challenge enhanced her qualities of empathy and perseverance, leading her to seek to help people “in all sorts of ways.” She held class, club and athletic leadership positions, culminating in serving as Student Council president during her senior year. The long list of awards she received include a President’s Award for Educational Excellence and Good Citizen Award from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Her community service activities provided assistance to beneficiaries from first-grade students to senior citizens, and from preparing meals to participating in Town Trash Cleanup Day. She plans a career in the medical field “helping people in need.”
Perez captained the soccer and basketball teams and won awards in those sports as well as in baseball. Academic honors included Excellence in science, history and English; participating on the school’s math team; and the President’s Education Award Program. Community service activities ranged from helping to prepare Thanksgiving and other dinners for the elderly to assisting at Bike Maine and Halloween events. He will attend Husson University in Bangor, taking a six-year program leading to both a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and a doctor of physical therapy degree.
Bisson’s goal is to “pursue a career in art and teach others the joys of being creative.” She says her art teachers were “mentors and supporters for me,” and that she wishes to “make a difference in children’s lives while pursuing my passion to teach art.” She has volunteered as a student aid in an elementary school art class and looks forward to “the opportunity to learn new skills and share them with my students.”
The directors of the scholarship program are Rebekah Carmichael, Rangeley town treasurer; Heidi Deery, student services director at Rangeley Lakes Regional School; Leeanna J. Wilbur, vice president, Franklin Savings Bank; and one anonymous seasonal resident.
Contributions to the Seasonal Friends of Rangeley Scholarship and the Legacy Scholarship, which are tax deductible, may be sent to P.O. Box 321. Rangeley, ME 04970.
