Scholarship recipients, from left, front row, Hannah Allen, Priya Ramaswamy, Ashley Ridgeway, Mary Feng, Jennifer Kiang, and Katherine Mast. Back row, Abbie Vanderwest, David Benes, Diane Mattingly, Jonathan Toms, and Ashley Downs. – Rotary photos by George Hurlburt 

The Lexington Park Rotary Club this week awarded the Greenwell Foundation Inc. with a $30,000 grant for the Greenwell State Park building expansion project.

It was an eventful Monday for the club, as members also dished out more than $40,000 in college grants and scholarships to 14 worthy area students.

The club awarded $10,000 four year scholarships to Mary Feng and Jennifer Kiang of Leonardtown and Ashley Ridgeway of St. Mary’s Ryken.

Mary Feng also received the $1,000 Mike Marlay award for the most outstanding student in St. Mary’s County.

Sabrina Barnes, of Leonardtown, was awarded with the $2,000 Vocational-Technical grant.

The club awarded $1,500 grants to Diane Mattingly, Priya Ramaswamy, and Katie Staso all of Leonardtown, and $1,000 grants were given to Rebecca Rivera and Abbie Vanderwest of Leonardtown and David Benes of The King’s Christian Academy.

Abbie Vanderwest also received the $1,000 Anne Houston Green Music Education grant, and Jonathan Toms of Great Mills received the $1,000 Greg H. Clarke Engineering grant. Katherine Mast of Chopticon received the $1,000 Doris Darrah Mathematics Education grant, and Ashley Downs and Hannah Allen of Great Mills and Katherine Mast received $500 grants.

“Our club is delighted to honor these students for their hard work in high school and to help them achieve their life goals via a college education,” said Frank Kohler, outgoing president of the Lexington Park club.

The club membership voted Monday among the top three Signature Project nominees to decide on the project submitted by the Greenwell Foundation. The top three were chosen by the project committee from 19 projects that were submitted.

Representatives for the organizations submitting the top three proposals were given ten minutes each to present their project information to the Club.

The Greenwell “clubhouse” project narrowly defeated projects submitted by the Boys and Girls Club of Southern Maryland, and the Chesapeake Bay Field Lab, by 20 votes, to 17 votes to 10 votes, respectively.

Executive Director Kendall Sorenson Clark  presented Greenwell State Park’s plans for two 14 x 20 foot buildings to be used by groups at the park.

Angela Funya and Margaret Ann Stewart spoke for the Chesapeake Bay Field Lab from St. George Island about the handicap accessible marsh walkways and the two handicap restrooms they hope to build.

Pamela Wilkerson and Jon Tucker, of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maryland, presented their plans for the purchase of a 15-passenger bus to provide transportation to students for the many projects of this tri-county organization that serves over 6000 children a year.

Mike Guy, Chairman of the Signature Project Committee, commented that …”a total of 47 voting members was a tremendous turnout in support of the project voting. Now Camp Greenwell will benefit from the support of our club and our &ls