Kiwanis honors student heroes and scholarship winners

By Frances Ruth Harris
CHESTER — The Chester Kiwanis Club honored six young people of tremendous achievement at its July 20 ceremony held at Saint Columbia's Bishop Vaughan Hall.
President Frank Sambets spoke of the merits of the honorees as he led the ceremony, along with members Sandy Nagler and Sue Bahren.
Everyday Hero AwardsAnthony Battiato and Kasandra Catlett, the heroic pair who on June 3 roused the sleeping Peterman family as their house burned, received the Everyday Hero Award. Chester Academy Principal Denis Petrilak, Vice-principal Rolando Aguilar, Mayor Tom Bell and Sandy Nagler all lauded their bravery and quick thinking.
Ashton Guidi, fifth-grader at Chester Elementary School, celebrated Autism Awareness Month in honor of Owen Dillon, his cousin with autism. Guidi and his lacrosse team wore Autism Awareness stickers on their helmets in April.
The Chester Kiwanis has given 20 Everyday Hero Awards over the years.
Scholarship AwardsSara Tomazzolli was awarded the Kiwanis's $1,000 Humanities Scholarship Award. Sara was salutatorian and president of the National Honor Society at Chester Academy. She designed murals that cover the walls at Chester Academy. She interned through the prestigious Wallkill River Art School. She was attending orientation at SUNY Purchase for incoming freshmen at the time of the ceremony.
Delia Fentazi received the Key Club $1,000 Service Award. She will attend Boston University, majoring in biology on a pre-med track to become a pediatric physician. She took independent study classes in anatomy and bioethics with Virtual High School. She qualified as a junior to enroll in the Med-Achieve Scholarship program via Touro College, completing the MedDxcel program in her senior year. She's a member of the National Honor Society, active in the Key Club since the ninth grade, active in leadership roles in school government, tutors elementary school students after school, volunteers at Orange Regional Medical Center, volunteers and now works at the local library, holds a part-time job at a Middletown craft store, and played clarinet in the school band for seven years.
Jacob Baker received the Kiwanis's Vocation-Technical Scholarship Award for $1,000. Jacob transferred from Greenwood Lake during his junior year, playing football as a senior. As a small child he would fix things by intuition. His curiosity led him to fix cars and use tools with ease. He's self-taught when it comes to fixing automobiles. SUNY Morrisville will be his home base next year, where he'll major in the automotive-Ford Asset Program. The Ford Motor Company works with students during school and assigns them to work at dealerships on school breaks. Jacob also walks dogs part-time, worked a seasonal position at the Renaissance Faire, and volunteered as a dog walker with the local humane society.