Pulaski County Supervisors award 2023 Lead Through Service Scholarship to Vest, Ervine

5 26 Lead through Service pic
The Pulaski County Board of Supervisors present Lead Through Service Scholarship checks and framed copies of a resolution in their honor to recipients Tori Vest and Kaitlin Ervine during Monday night’s May meeting of the board. (Mike Williams/The Patriot)

~ The Board of Supervisors and County Administrator Gives $3,150.00 in Scholarships to two Graduating Seniors to Foster the Development of Future Local Leaders ~

The Pulaski County Board of Supervisors and County Administration continues to fulfil their priority of fostering local leadership development and bolstering service to the community through the personal sponsorship of their Lead Through Service Scholarship.  This year for the first time ever, the Board selected two equal recipients for the 2023 Lead Through Service Scholarship and they are Ms. Tori Vest and Ms. Kaitlin Ervine.

“It is important that we continue to invest in developing our next generation of local leaders and cultivate a mindset in our youth of continued service back to their community,” stated Jonathan D. Sweet, County Administrator.  “The successful future of our County lies with developing our young local leaders, that will ultimately return to Pulaski County and serve their community as our nurses, our teachers, our first responders, our business leaders, our entrepreneurs and our workforce.”

The competitive and most coveted local scholarship in the New River Valley is awarded to a graduating Pulaski County High School student who demonstrates leadership through serving their community, and plans to continue to contribute to the community upon completion of their formal education.  The annual scholarship ranges in the amount of $2,500.00 to $10,000.00 and can be utilized for any two- or four-year institution or technical degree program.

“I am honored to contribute to this important scholarship and more importantly contribute to an investment in our County’s future leadership,” stated Laura Walters, Chair, Pulaski County Board of Supervisors. “This is an excellent way to help raise up future leaders and instill in them a deep appreciation and genuine value of service to their community.  We can all help to develop future public servants by encouraging them to volunteer, offer them opportunities to serve their community, and by investing in them through education.”

The annual competitive scholarship is funded personally by each individual member of the Board of Supervisors as well as the County Administrator, Assistant County Administrator and certain County staff who share in the vision of local leadership development.  There are NO taxpayer’s monies involved with this scholarship and contributions are entirely voluntary.  The members of the Board of Supervisors are as follows:  Chair Laura Walters, Vice Chair Dirk Compton, Jeff Reeves, Chris Stafford and Mike Mooney.  The County Administrator is Jonathan D. Sweet and the Assistant County Administrator is Anthony Akers.

Previous Lead Through Service Scholarship recipients are Ms. Breanna Lytton – 2019, Ms. Jaelyn Szerokman – 2020, Alex Turner and Ashlyn Kirtner – 2021, and Gwendolyn Puckett – 2022.  The Scholarship has provided more than $21,000.00 in grant awards to graduating seniors of Pulaski County High School since its inception in 2019.

Pulaski County is…Leading through Service.