Getting a helping hand

Rector High School Helping Hands Foundation president Sherland Hamilton (left) of Rector and board member Gloria Reed (right) of Chicago, chair of the Foundation scholarship committee, congratulate RHS seniors Joabou Mitchell (second from left) and Bethany Sisneros, who each will receive $5,000 college scholarships through the Foundation for 2009-2010. Joabou is the recipient of the Helping Hands scholarship, and Bethany is the recipient of the Pauline Crockett scholarship, administered through the Foundation. Both are renewable with a 2.5 GPA. Joabou plans to study nursing at Black River Techical College, and Bethany plans to attend Arkansas State University at Paragould. The Foundation also voted to extend a scholarship awarded last year to Dillan Hartsfield, who is studying diesel mechanics in a two-year program at Oklahoma State University/Okmulgee. 2008 RHS grads Racheal Gipson and Daniel Hester will continue their studies at ASU in the fall with renewable scholarships awarded through the Foundation last year. Racheal was last year's winner of the renewable Crockett Scholarship and Daniel was the recipient of the James W. Graves Memorial Scholarship, also renewable with a 2.5 GPA.

Rector High School senior Sarah Hester is the first winner of the Moses Knight Scholarship awarded through the Rector High School Helping Hands Foundation. On hand Tuesday to offer their congratulations to Sarah were Foundation board member Kay Huggins, a member of the Foundation scholarship committee, and Foundation president Sherland Hamilton. Sarah stands by a painting of the late Moses Knight, a small uneducated black man who lived in Rector in the first half of the 20th century and, through his kindness and affection for children, won a special place in the hearts of all who knew him. Sarah's four-year full tuition scholarship to Williams Baptist College at Walnut Ridge is funded by an anonymous couple who were touched by Knight's story and decided to reach out in kindness to keep his name alive. The couple indicated they plan to endow the WBC scholarship for years to come.