SHELBY — The Crawford County Business & Education Advisory Council (CCBEAC) recently held its annual countywide recognition and awards program honoring outstanding effort by public school students and teachers. This year’s BEST Awards were hosted by Pioneer Career and Technology Center on May 1. Entertainment was provided by an ensemble from the Pioneer performing arts program under the direction of Anne Kurtzman.
Students from each of Crawford County’s seven high schools (Buckeye Central, Bucyrus, Colonel Crawford, Crestline, Galion, Wynford, and Fairway), and two Crawford County seniors from Pioneer Career & Technology Center, received BEST Awards. The awards are given to students exhibiting outstanding levels of effort, responsibility and citizenship. All students are eligible including college-bound, career-bound, and special education students. These are not academic or athletic awards; they are awards designed to recognize students who exhibit outstanding work ethic by continually doing their best, putting forth effort, committing to the responsibilities they undertake, being cooperative and working well on a team, and being reliable and trustworthy. The Business and Education Advisory Council has concluded that these are the characteristics that most employers are seeking.
Each student names an educator who has been especially inspirational and encouraging in furthering their work ethic development and educational goals. The students may choose any educator from preschool through high school, including administrators, coaches, guidance counselors, and other personnel.
Here are the 2019 BEST Award recipients (the honored education is in parantheses: Buckeye Central — Chase Brown (Zac Kaple) and Taylor Ratliff (Marcia Stout); Bucyrus — McKenzie Powers (Terra Hamm) and Dorothy Taylor (Tracye Belcher); Colonel Crawford — Madisyn Cooke (LynleeDzugan), Kyle Nebergall (Lynlee Dzugan); Allison Goddard (Danielle Clime) and Kayla Humphrey (Ryan Teglovic); Crestline — Ethan Clum (Kris Bruce) and Adia Armstrong (Katie Stasen); Fairway School — Duston Drew (Cheryl Williams) and Christain Olmstead (Julie Thornton); Galion City Schools — Kacie Runyon(Robert Gossom) and Kiersten Gifford and (Amy Tyree); Pioneer — Rachel Brown (Terri Crain) and Desi Hunt (Anne Kurtzman); Wynford — Chase Schoonover (Jordan Oliver) and Matthew McBride (Jordan Oliver)
During the event, Crest Bending, Inc. of New Washington received the Steve Tilson Business Partner Award for their partnership with Pioneer Career and Technology Center. In the nomination letter, Pioneer superintendent Greg Nickoli stated, “For many years, the staff and employees of Crest Bending have worked diligently to partner with Pioneer and have actively supported our educational and workforce training efforts in a variety of ways. They regularly give of their time, expertise, and other resources to support our students as they prepare for future employment and our staff as we work to provide world-class career technical training. They consistently demonstrate a commitment to education;
provide mentoring and job shadowing opportunities; host field trips and community projects; hire Pioneer students and serve on our Advisory Boards.”
The Crawford County BEST Awards were sponsored by the CCBEAC, the Crawford Partnership for Education and Economic Development and Parr Insurance Agency, Inc. These organizations were helpful in providing organizational skills, time and guidance in connection with these awards.
