After sorting and reviewing applications and recommendations that were submitted over a period of several weeks, on May 15 the Landrum Area Fire and Rescue District awarded its inaugural $1000 scholarship to Ashby Cartee, a senior at Landrum High School.
With their applications, students were required to prepare an essay of 200 words or more describing their experiences with community service and how those experiences impacted them as students and citizens.
The contest was open to any high school seniors living within the Landrum Area Fire and Rescue District service area or attending Landrum High School. This allowed for inclusion of public school, private school, and homeschool students. They were required to have a minimum 3.0 GPA, recommendation letters, and attend college in the fall semester of 2018.
Planning to major in Sports Management at Winthrop University, Cartee serves Landrum High School as student body president and is a Beta Club member with a 4.382 GPA.
Although Cartee certainly met the academic requirements, it was his extracurricular dedication that made him stand out, according to Landrum Area Fire and Rescue District Chairwoman Pam Hilsman.
“In 2010, Ashby and his sister started ‘Cards for Veterans’ to collect Christmas cards for veterans in nursing homes and in VA hospitals. To date, Cards for Veterans has collected and distributed an estimated 165,000 cards. At his age, it says a tremendous amount about his character, and character is a large part of what this scholarship is about.”
Chief Warren Ashmore agreed and added, “All of this year’s applicants were stellar. This was our first year offering a scholarship, and while we didn’t quite know what to expect, these young people exceeded our expectations in a big way.”
The Landrum Area Fire and Rescue District is expected to award another scholarship next year. Applications and details will be available at LandrumFire.com in the spring of 2019.
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About the Landrum Area Fire and Rescue District
The Landrum Area Fire and Rescue District was created on June 3, 2015 by Act 48 of the South Carolina General Assembly to address evolving fire and emergency needs of the coverage area of the former Landrum Fire Department that included the incorporated City of Landrum, a contract area in Spartanburg County outside (but adjacent to) the city, and approximately 22% of the Foothills Fire Service Area in Greenville County. The district was created to transition from a part-time paid department relying primarily on volunteers to a full-time paid staff of fire fighters with emergency response personnel augmented by volunteers. For more information about the Landrum Area Fire and Rescue District, visit www.LandrumFire.com.
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