Rotary to honour scholarship winners

By Ry Clarke - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on February 23, 2023.

The Rotary Club of Lethbridge East is getting ready for its 2023 Ag Scholarship Dinner on March 2 at the Coast Hotel Lethbridge. The club will be announcing the winners of this year’s $10,000 agricultural scholarships for southern Alberta students pursuing a post-secondary education in agriculture. Three winners have been selected to receive the award this year, with the banquet looking to celebrate their work towards a future in the agriculture industry.

“The focus of the evening will be the announcement of the three winners of the scholarship,” said Glenn Coulter, part of the organizing committee.

“There were seven finalists that were interviewed on Saturday (Feb. 18) and we have selected the three winners. It was a hard choice, but our committee was able to come up with a unanimous decision as to who the top three were.”

This will be the club’s fifth annual scholarship dinner, awarding three recipients last year as well. Darrick Nicol, Kelsey Gubbins, and Adam Fast were the winners in 2022.

The club recognizes the importance of agriculture in the community, hoping to support local students in their pursuit of an agricultural career.

“The economy of southern Alberta is so closely associated with agriculture,” said Coulter.

“One of the reasons our Rotary Club is supporting the students, is we believe they will be the leaders of the future. They are going to be the CEOs of the food technology companies, and the economists.”

The club hopes its investments for the future pay off, noting it wants to keep handing out these scholarships for those pursuing education in the field.

“It’s exciting to see these young people up there getting their awards,” said Andrew Bronson, part of the organizing committee. “It chokes you up how hard they have worked at their ag careers already in their young age. I think you’ll be amazed at these recipients and what they are doing and what they have accomplished. When we started this, we didn’t know if we could pull it off and raise $10,000 and have one scholarship… now this is year number five and this will be scholarships nine, 10 and 11.”

The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with dinner and programming, along with special guest speaker Chris Koch, a motivational speaker and farmer from southern Alberta who grew up in Nanton. The club will also be holding a silent auction online at the Perlich Brothers website, as well as a 50/50, to help raise funds. Links to both can be found online at rotaryagscholarship.ca. Tickets are still available for the dinner, with funds raised going towards the event.

Hosting a night to celebrate education and agriculture, the Rotary Club Lethbridge East is helping give three aspiring students the aid they need to pursue their education further. “Lethbridge is recognized for its agriculture prowess in other parts of the province across Canada,” said Coulter. “We would really like to bump up that understanding of how important agriculture is to our community.”