West Portsmouth, Ohio — The Autism Project of Southern Ohio has granted $1,000 scholarships to four students who are about to go to or already are in college.
The scholarship grants were sponsored by various donors, including Jeremy Burnside Attorney-at-Law, DESCO, the Fraternal Order of Police, Local 187, and the Ryan Salmons State Farm Insurance. The grantees were Kristyn Bell, Halea King, Bobby Madden, and Andrew Walker.
The scholars were asked to write an essay on how they deal with autism in their daily lives.
This is the second year that the Autism Project of Southern Ohio has granted college scholarships for the students with autism.
According to the governing board president of Autism Project of Scioto County, Mike Payton, the organization hopes to somehow ease the burdens of families caring for the students with autism through these scholarships. He told:
“Some of these folks are getting to where there are opportunities for them to get into college and, let’s face it, when you’ve got a child with special needs, it is expensive enough as it is, so we just wanted to try to do something to help out a little bit. That’s really what the driving force behind it was.”
The Autism Project of Ohio raises money through different fundraising events, which include the Autism Walk in April, the Challenger Basketball League, the McDonalds “Light it Up Blue” event, the Just For Fun Bowling League, and even a Halloween Bash in October, among others.
Source: Frank Lewis: Portsmouth Daily Times: Autism Project awards scholarships