May 2nd, 2018 by WCBC Radio

On Tuesday, 66 high school seniors were honored at the 35^th Annual Achievement Awards banquet held at the Allegany County Fairgrounds.  The end-of-the-year event recognizes graduating seniors in the Allegany County Public School System who are in the top 12% of their classes in academic excellence, who have made special accomplishments in the arts, and who demonstrate superior leadership qualities.  A total of 27 of these students have chosen to continue their education locally at either Allegany College of Maryland or Frostburg State University.

            Sponsors of this year’s event included ACT 1^st Federal Credit Union, AES Warrior Run, Daly Computers, First Peoples Community Federal Credit Union, Hamilton Relay, LaVale Lions Club, Orbital ATK, Inc., Skyline Technology Solutions, VERSO Corporation, Western Maryland Health System, and Willetts Technology, Inc.  Members of the banquet planning committee who worked to organize the program were Nil Grove, chair; Dr. Kim Kalbaugh, Dr. Wendy Main, and Tanya Gomer.  Tom Harrison provided the music for the evening’s event, and Oscar’s Restaurant catered the sit-down dinner.  The Career Center’s printing department printed the programs for the banquet.

            Superintendent of Schools, Dr. David Cox, opened the event with a welcome address to all students, parents, and special guests in attendance.  Dr. Sara-Beth Bittinger, school board president, served as the Master of Ceremonies and presided over the awards presentations. Tammy Fraley, school board vice president, led the Pledge of Allegiance; Laurie Marchini, school board member, offered a tribute; Nicholas Hadley, school board member, introduced the evening’s special guests; and Wayne Foote, school board member, gave closing remarks.  High school principals introduced each of the students below as they received recognition for their accomplishments.

            Allegany High School: Andrew Beck, Umailla Fatima, Madeline Frank, Eli Hofacker, Clay Hoover, Evan Hostetler, Grace Hutcherson, Sydney Ives, Alexis Lashbaugh, Melissa Magrath, Andrew Martin, Jayna Michael, Julia Moore, Christopher Palasik, Madeline Santmyire, Lyssa Wilhelm, Jie Zheng.

            Center for Career and Technical Education:  Colby Barclay, Ashley Bingaman, Zachary Burns, Benjamin Bush, Camden Coleman, Lexi Friend, Zachary Gibson, Emily Melkovics, Jasmine Sanchez, Towson Sloan, Ean Twigg, Zoe Watkins.

            Fort Hill High School:  Amy Alderton, Ashley Armbruster, Kylie Eckard, Hannah Hardinger, Eliza Jackowski, Jeremy Joe, Connor Kelly, Emily King, Jake LePlatt, Megan Lewis, Ivy Mackereth, Joel McCarty, Millena Michael, Caitlyn Reed, Brady Shaffer, Nicholas Stumbaugh, Brittany Tressler, Megan Welsh.

            Mountain Ridge High School:  Jacob Bowen, Loudan Bowman, Sarah Browning, Morgan Edwards, Joseph Grabenstein, Carli Hager, Cheyenne Hart, Callie Heft, Claire Hoffman, Audrey Jones, Brianna Ralston, Sarah Robertson, Aishwarya Singh, Kaitlynn Spiker, Kaleb Tawney, Garrett Ternent, Chloe Wildman, Sydney Winner, Ian Zheng.