Students and business to be honored for ethics
A North Fort Myers High School student will be one of the honorees at the upcoming Uncommon Evening event. The annual event of the Uncommon Friends Foundation will be held Thursday, June 4, at Harborside Event Center, 1375 Monroe St., Fort Myers.
“This evening is the culmination of a year’s worth of dedication to character education and business ethics,” said Foundation Executive Director Arlene Roth. “We recognize 25 deserving scholarship recipients who exemplify character despite circumstance. We also honor a Southwest Florida business that exemplifies ethics at all levels, management and partnership.”
Bobbie Santiago is a freshman at North Fort Myers High School. “She is receiving our Florida Prepaid Scholarship,” said Pat Archambault, coordinator of Character Eduction. “If students meet all the conditions of having good academic record while in high school, being drug free and crime free, when they graduate they receive two years of college tuition and local fees to any public college in Florida. It’s a great scholarship.”
In the program, Archambault said the following description will be noted for Santiago: “Bobbie Santiago is an avid basketball player at both North Fort Myers HS and in the Boys & Girls Club leagues. Her ‘fans’ describe her as resilient, determined, and a hard-working self-starter who recognizes the importance of being a positive role model for young girls. Bobbie’s challenges in life have made her stronger and even more determined to go to college. She says ‘I am going to make something of myself and no one is going to stop me.’ Watch out world!”
During the event, the fourth annual Business Ethics Award recipient will be announced. The two finalists are Entech Computer Services and Shell Point Retirement Community.
North Fort Myers business leader Pamela J. Cronin also will speak at the event.
Another feature of the evening will be the presentation of a Special Recognition Scholarship to Josh Kelchner, who was a 2005 Uncommon Friends Florida Prepaid Scholarship recipient. Kelchner has received several recent honors following his high school graduation and the fact that he has lived in 13 foster homes. In June, he will report to West Point to continue his education.
The scholarship recipients were nominated by schools and organizations and are recognized based on financial need and their potential to succeed in their educational endeavors.
The two business ethics finalists and CEOs of Lee and Collier businesses have been invited to participate in a Business Ethics Roundtable at FGCU at noon on June 4 at the College of Business. Dr. Charles Fornaciari, Uncommon Friends Chair of Ethics, College of Business, FGCU, will moderate the roundtable.
The Uncommon Friends Foundation, established in 1993, is a character education foundation whose mission is to instill ethics, moral values and a sense of purpose in tomorrow’s leaders. The foundation is dedicated to enriching society by promoting the positive values author James D. Newton discovered in five unique men and their wives -Thomas Edison, Henry Ford Harvey Firestone, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Charles Lindbergh -intellectual giants who helped shape the 20th Century.
The Uncommon Evening will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are still available. Individual tickets are $65. Tables of eight are available for $500. Oswald Trippe and Company and Travelers are the presenting sponsors for the event.
For additional information about the foundation and tickets for the Uncommon Evening call 337-9505 or check the Web site at uncommonfriends.org.