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<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:27px;font-weight:bold"><b><span style="font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Arial"><span> </span>Lions Club
Debuts Scholarships For GPAs, Service</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:27px;font-weight:bold"><img width="74" height="70" align="left" hspace="9"><b><i><span style="font-size:16.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Arial">New Educational
Funding To Be Presented At Sept. 26 Event</span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:27px;font-weight:bold"><b><i><span style="font-size:16.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Arial"><br></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Riverdale Park, MD.
September 21, 2012</b> -- The Riverdale Lions Club and Riverdale Park Council
member and Lion Jonathan Ebbeler (Ward 1) today announced the winners of their inaugural
scholarship program that recognizes two area students with $1,000 each in
scholarship funding to help further their educations. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kelsey Jarman, of Riverdale Park, and Semira Tesfai, of
Hyattsville, will receive awards at the Sept. 26 when the Lions meet at the
Riverdale Park Town Hall at 7 pm while Riverdale’s Andrew Waldron will get an
honorable mention.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The students were selected for their top-end grade point
averages upon graduation from high school last spring and for their on-going
commitments to community service. Jarman, 17, who graduated from Eleanor
Roosevelt High School with a 3.8 cumulative grade-point average, has just began
her freshman year at Towson University where she is studying physical therapy
and musical theater. She is intends to continue on to medical school. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With just a month of college under her belt, Jarman says she
has discovered that going away from school “is a really cool freedom” that she
believes will help her soar. “I go to class all day and do my homework in the
evening and I have great opportunities here.” She is surprised that her hardest
class of the week is acting class where she’s directed to think and act outside
her normal structured life. She’s learned that she’s “over analyzing, over thinking
and it’s a bit overwhelming.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><img width="155" height="137" align="left" hspace="9" alt="Text Box: Semira Tesfai
">Tesfai, 18, is currently attending the
University of Maryland/College Park where she intends to major in
communications and government with a focus politics. She hopes to earn a <span style="line-height:115%;color:#1a1a1a">masters degree in Public Policy and
have a career in education reform. Tesfai</span> won the respect of her
teachers at Northwestern High by being a member of the Honors Freshman English
class, taking four AP classes and several honors classes, joining the Mock
Trial, International Studies, and the National Honor Society clubs while
playing on the school’s softball and soccer teams and still maintaining a 3.1
GPA. And she also found time to serve as the Eritrean Youth Group chairperson.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;color:#1a1a1a">”I am
beyond pleased and honored to have been selected as a recipient for such an
amazing award,” said Tesfai.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">“Semira has the maturity, dedication and persistence to
successfully maneuver the academia at a four year institution,” said Yvette
Wright, one of her Northwestern counselors. “She has a compassionate nature and
is revered by her peers for her willingness to help, her competitiveness in
athletics and her general warm personality.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Lions and Council member Ebbeler, who joined the Lions Club last spring, were impressed with the
applications they received and have granted an additional “honorable mention”
award to Andrew Waldron of Riverdale. The award comes with a $250 contribution
to his education at the University of Maryland/College Park. Waldon, who says
he’s grateful for the recognition, is a junior working on a BS in Psychology
and Neuroscience.<span> </span>He enjoys
working with the Takoma Pak Meals on Wheels and with the University of Maryland
Gymkana Troupe which performs at local schools educating children about the
dangers of drugs and alcohol. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>“The Lions Club
is thrilled to create these scholarships and proud of our young winners who
exemplify the energetic and smart generation that will make tomorrow’s leaders
and tomorrow’s Lions,” said “King Lion” Patrick Prangley. “I salute Councilman
Ebbeler, who represents the essence of what it means to be a Lion. I thank him
for his generous financial contribution to these scholarships and his tireless
efforts to find such impressive and worthy winners.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>The Lions Club
International is a 95-year-old secular service organization with more than 1.3
million members worldwide and is perhaps best known for its work with the blind
and for its hearing and speech conservation, diabetes awareness and youth
outreach programs. The Riverdale Lions Club, chartered in 1971, last year
provided eye exams and glasses for more than 60 Riverdale area youth and needy
persons, and distributed more than 50 food baskets to under privileged families
at Thanksgiving and Christmas.<span>
</span>Each year, the group collects hundreds of used pairs of eyeglasses that are
refurbished and sent to people in need. <span style="line-height:115%">The Riverdale Lions Club is also a
significant contributor to community arts and youth programs. </span> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><br></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>The Lions Club is seeking
partners for the 2012 holiday food baskets programs and for the 2013
scholarship awards program. For additional information, or for a membership
application for the Riverdale Lions Club, contact immediate past King Lion Guy
Tiberio at <a href="tel:240-375-8902" value="+12403758902" target="_blank">240-375-8902</a>, or <a href="mailto:guytiberio@gmail.com" target="_blank">guytiberio@gmail.com</a>.
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