MANSFIELD — The Mansfield Noon Optimist Club’s motto “friend of youth” rang true Wednesday night with its awarding of quality student awards and scholarships.
Meant to be a one-time centennial scholarship last year, Cadence Fairchild from Shelby asked the Noon Optimist Club to re-gift the $5,000 after she received a four-year, full-ride scholarship to The Ohio State University.
Jeremy Leber from Crestview High School earned the award Wednesday.
Leber is a class officer and football player at Crestview High School. He coordinated a prayer chain ministry for military members and veterans. He plans to study mechanical and aerospace engineering in college.
Dave Siebold, a Mansfield Noon Optimist Club past president and chair of the essay and scholarship committees, congratulated all award-winners gathered at Dan Lew Exchange.
The banquet honored two students each from nine high schools across Richland County as quality students. Each student received a plaque with The Optimist’s Creed and their name engraved.
The club also presented awards and checks to essay contest and scholarship winners.
The essay contest is organized by Optimist International and requires students to write between 700 and 800 words on the assigned topic. This year’s topic was, “How optimism has paved my road to success.”
The local winners were:
- Lilly Cline from Crestview High School. She earned a bronze medal and $50.
- Emma Kline from Mansfield Senior High School. She earned a silver medal and $100.
- Elliott Christie from Lexington High School. She earned a gold medal and $200.
The scholarship winners will enter a district competition for additional scholarship money.
Christie read his essay for other honorees and their family members at Wednesday’s banquet. He wrote about how “viewing a loss through a positive lens” at a jiu-jitsu tournament helped him work harder toward other goals.
“Losing in this tournament involuntarily forced me to confront failure head on, and in doing so, I even learned to embrace it,” Christie said.
“Pushing myself to do my absolute best allowed me to uncover new strengths and more importantly, refocus my energies on areas where I need to grow. This is what made me understand that taking yourself out of your comfort zone is the cornerstone of growth.”
Speakers encourage students to take risks
Tom Stortz leads the quality student awards program for the Mansfield Noon Optimist Club.
“It’s very moving to recognize these students,” he said. “I want to thank the students and administrators, and especially the parents. We really appreciate what you do to make these students what they are today.”
The evening also featured guests Jason Opal, dean of OSU-Mansfield, and 2024 Miss Ohio Stephanie Finoti.
Opal encouraged the students to be adaptable and try new things like taking a college class outside of their interests or comfort zones.
“For students here who are so extraordinary, you can get afraid of failure,” Opal said. “You can get afraid of not always being the best. And you can get afraid if things don’t work out exactly as you planned them.
“There’s no easy way past this, but a really important thing to make yourself more fearless is to have a varied background and have tried different things and taken risks in the relatively safe environment of academia.”
Finoti, a biomedical science and public health graduate of the University of Cincinnati, shared how she learned the importance of living in the moment.
“What I learned going to college is that it’s really hard to live in the moment and experience the now,” she said. “Sometimes the downfall of being futuristic is you forget to truly live in the present and enjoy the moment.”
Finoti, who placed as the 4th runner-up at Miss America this February, said she reshaped her thinking and worrying about the future knowing she only had one year as Miss Ohio.
“In taking in every single moment, I found myself truly enjoying that experience at Miss America, and I do believe that is what led me to place in the top five in the nation,” she said.
“In my life, I always felt like I was in a race against myself and losing those little moments that truly mean so much. It’s not about how many awards you can achieve, but how you use those experiences to better yourself and better your community.”
Magnolia Chamberlin from St. Peter High School and Emma Kline from Mansfield Senior High School each won a $1,000 scholarship.
The Mansfield Noon Optimist Club recognized 18 quality students from nine different high schools and six essay and scholarship award-winners Wednesday night.
Siebold said Kline is the first student in recent memory to be a quality student award-winner, an essay contest winner and a scholarship awardee.
This year’s quality students are:
Clear Fork High School
- Noel Cline
- Fisher McLaughlin
Crestview High School
- Ethan Close
- Erin Tackett
Lexington High School
- Camden Boozer
- JayByx Mack
Lucas Hugh School
- Rebekah Case
- Raya Walter
Madison Comprehensive High School
- Gage Masters
- Sydney Phillips
Mansfield Senior High School
- Emma Kline
- Jaxson Stentz
Ontario High School
- Zachary McChristy
- Isabella Schoonover
Plymouth High School
- Cailynn Bailey
- Noah Robinson
Shelby High School
- Dawson Gove
- Rees Lewis
AMVETS Post 26 sponsored the banquet.
Noon Optimist Club activities and programs include the Mid-Ohio Home Show, a scholarship toward the Miss Ohio program, International Optimist Day sponsorships and Adopt-A-Child Christmas gifts.
The club also fundraised for the outdoor Optimist Club Park at Buckeye Imagination Museum.