Take Stock in Children awards students

Thank you, Manatee County, for supporting the dreams of 35 students and their families Tuesday night at the school board meeting. This would not have been possible without you.

Scholars, their families, their volunteer mentors and other members of the Take Stock in Children Manatee organization participated in the contract signing and formal admittance into the program. You helped make all of this possible.

Each scholar has gone through a rigorous application process that began with 200 and was narrowed to 35 talented students.

Each student and a parent signed the contract indicating that they would maintain at least a 2.5 GPA, remain drug and crime free and meet with their volunteer mentor once a week for 30 minutes on the school campus.

School board members and mentors for TSIC Manatee Karen Carpenter and Chairman Charlie Kennedy presented each student with the scholarship certificates.

Take Stock in Children Manatee thanks the community for the first steps toward making dreams come true for 35 middle and high school students.

You change a life when you support TSIC Manatee. TSIC Manatee has a 96 percent high school graduation rate of students in the program.

In this season of sharing, you created the promise for these families and helped provide scholarships, mentors and hope for the future.

This story was originally published December 19, 2016 at 1:28 AM with the headline "Take Stock in Children awards students."