Reception fetes Girls Inc. scholarship winners

FORT SMITH — Nine young women were honored at a reception Thursday night (June 12) as recipients of $9,700 worth of Girls Inc. scholarships. The affair was held at 21 West End.

The local senior students and returning college undergrads were Bree Cole, a sophomore at the University of Arkansas at Monticello; Sarah Edgmon, a freshman at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith who has been involved with Girls Inc. since she was 5; Destiny Gordon, has worked for Girls Inc. since 2008 and is now attending the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff. Lauren Higginbotham, a sophomore at UAFS; Charley Toney, a 2012 graduate of Northside High School who plans to attend Hendrix College in the fall; Meredith Linam, another Northside grad with plans to attend in the University of Arkansas; Jessie May, a sophomore at UAFS: Courtney Moss, who is in her fourth year at UAFS; and Stephanie Poarch, a business student at UAFS.

Girls Inc. of Fort Smith has given nearly 220,000 in scholarships since its inception in 1980. Funds are awarded to applicants who have been involved in the program for at least two years and embody the organization’s motto: “Strong, Smart, Bold.”

Sponsors whose donations made contributed to scholarships: June Alexander and her husband Jim, who started the first scholarship fund in 1980; the families and friends of Roger and Charlene Curtis, who established an endowment scholarship fund in their memory; Dr. W. C. Holmes; and the Arkansas Best Corporation “do gooders club,” which donates to the fund annually.