- December 25, 2024
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A couple months ago when I was covering the Mr. and Miss Matanzas pageant, Deborah Williams and Carla Cline called me over to the judges’ table. They had a project they were working on for the Flagler County Education Foundation and wanted me to be part of it.
The catch was that instead of being behind the camera, I would have to step in front of it and tell my Take Stock in Children story.
I received my Take Stock scholarship in seventh grade. I remember sitting in Mrs. Pandich’s office after school working on my essay to accompany my application. The program was still new in Flagler County at the time, and I bounced from mentor to mentor until finally I got one that stuck. Dr. Richard Conkling, or Dr. C., as us kids called him, took me on as his mentee and helped me to foster a passion for story telling though the lens of a camera.
I stood in front of blinding lights and a video camera in an office at Belle Terre Elementary School as 1997 Flagler Palm Coast High School graduate Matt Katsolis asked me questions about my time as a Take Stock scholar. I told him how having the scholarship gave me the confidence to go after other scholarhips and ultimately attend a four-year university tuition-free and how much it meant to me to be in Flagler County, giving back to the community that gave so much to me.
That film was presented June 9, at the foundation’s annual meeting, held at Hammock Dunes Club. If you were in attendance and don’t remember seeing me in the video, you’re right. The abundance of great things Katsolis filmed in classrooms funded by Dell Trayer Teacher Grants left my interview on the cutting room floor.
But there is still this grand connection between my mentor and so many great things happening at the Education Foundation, the first of which being a $1.3 million endowment willed to the foundation by the Osner family. Robert Osner was a member of the Flagler/Palm Coast Kiwanis club for 30 years and the club has previously given a memorial scholarship in his name.
“For us, it’s huge because this is our first large endowment, which allows us to probably double the number of student scholarships,” Williams said.
At the Monday night dinner, the board said goodbye to retiring board members and also welcomed new ones. One of those retiring members, Jay Gardner, credited Conkling for getting him involved in the board all those years ago. Nancy Carlton and Rebecca DeLorenzo also retired from the board. David Alfin, Heather Edwards and Henry Reid were welcomed as new board members.
Williams said she is proud of the new generation and credits Joe Rizzo, outgoing board president with starting that trend.
“It’s exciting to see that we’re going to have those 30- to 40-year-olds that are taking their place on the board,” she said.
But of course, the night wouldn’t be compete without Golden Apple Awards, presented to incoming board President Victoria Tiehen; new board member Reid, who gathered more than 700 shoes for Shoes4Kids; and Cline, who never fails to throw a good fundraising party.
