Friday evening before the homecoming game the George E. Scott Memorial Scholarship dinner was held at Italy High School in the cafeteria. It was full of hungry people with not only an appetite for food but also an appetite for contributing to the scholarship fund. And a hearty appetite they had.

This year the citizens of Italy broke the record. Two hundred and fifty six dinners were sold breaking all past records and $1,400.00 was raised for the scholarship. Weldon Holley said, “This was the best yet. We broke the record of dinners sold. It was the best turnout to date.”

George E. Scott was the superintendent for Italy ISD from 1967 to 1991. Because of his desire to see that every student at Italy ISD have a chance to go to college upon graduation he started the scholarship fund in 1986 starting with a personal contribution.

Everyone you could think of was there eating delicious barbeque provided by Bubba’s Barbeque out of Ennis. Weldon Holley was there selling tickets for the dinner. Jenna Bankhead was there helping Weldon sell tickets. Jenna said, “I am a recipient of the scholarship in 2006 and I came here to work.” Jenna is a senior at Baylor University studying special education and can’t wait to start teaching. She was helping to support the scholarship so someone else can benefit from it like she did.

Diane Lawson has been working for many years supporting the scholarship and had this to say,“It is always exciting every year to see the students who received scholarships and see how they are doing in college and see how successful they are. It makes me feel really good to see how they are doing. I worked with George for close to twenty years. He was a great friend and a great mentor to me. We are always excited every year to give scholarships in his honor.”

And of course Wanda Scott was there and said, “George was my husband and this scholarship that we give once a year is so meaningful because it is George’s legacy. His dream was for every child in Italy that wanted to go to college could. So this is just a dream come true.”

George’s dream is still alive and has helped many students get to college. Here are the recipents of his scholarship to date:

1993 – Celeste’ Kennedy, Adam Corely, Rhonda Finch
1994 – Robbie Freeman, Cortney Owens, Scott Roberts
1995 – Teresa Wilhite, Dana Batte
1996 – Amber Gearner, Jason Harris
1997 – Jason Ward, Christie Owen, Chris Boyd
1998 – Debra Wainscott, Casey Gearner, Rebecca Gage
1999 – Michelle Clark, Angela Walker
2000 – Adam Alvarez, Amber Bradley, Brooke Boyd, Keland Lewis
2001 – Ashley Clark, Jarod Durham, Katie Chamness
2002 – Jordon Droll, Jennifer Barthel, Natalie Jackson
2003 – Mark Wainscott, Holly Alvarez, JoAnn Jones
2004 – Cassie Madewell, Sarah Morgan, Nichole Short
2005 – Krystal Evans, Niki Howard, Patrick Roberts
2006 – Jamie Duke, Jenna Bankhead, Jessica Simon, Brian Weaver
2007 – Kalin Davis, Megann Lewis, Cameron Owens
2008 – Barbara Barnhart, Danielle Cotter, Chelsea Spraberry
2009 – Tyler Boyd, Trevor Davis, Angelica Garza, Clay Major, Chase Michael

Homecoming Photos