Energetic volunteers awarded scholarships by Warwick Volunteer Ambulance Corps
Warwick. Warwick’s all volunteer ambulance corps awarded the Katherine A. Ball Memorial Scholarship to two accomplished youth volunteers.
| 13 Jul 2022 | 11:31
Left to right: Carl and Christine Bodecker with son Alex, Debbie Gorish, Jr Corp advisor; Laura Cook with her mother Tara, and Frank Cassanite, Warwick Ambulance captain.
Whether volunteering with Warwick Junior Ambulance Corps, migrant workers, the homeless or beyond, two Warwick high school seniors have demonstrated their community engagement. Warwick Volunteer Ambulance Corps awarded Katherine A. Ball Memorial Scholarships to Laura Cook, who just graduated from Warwick Valley High School, and Alex Bodeker, 2022 graduate of John S. Burke High School.
Laura volunteered with Warwick EMS Junior Corps for a year while participating with the Math Team, Crew, Art Club, Park Avenue Drama Club, National Honor Society and National Technical Honor Society. She was Math Team president and received various recognitions for both academics and athletics, graduating with a 102 average and the highest geometry average.
In the fall, Laura heads to the University of Alabama to major in nursing or math. She was also accepted into their five-year MBA program.
Alex has been volunteering with Warwick Junior Ambulance Corps for four years along with volunteering with the local migrant community and the Warwick Ecumenical Food Pantry, while coaching and refereeing soccer teams--and playing varsity soccer in school as team captain.
Meanwhile, he took college English at Dominican College and college economics and personal finance at St. Thomas Aquinas. Alex will go to SUNY Oneonta in the fall to major in business.
A celebration dinner was held for the scholarship winners by the Warwick Volunteer Ambulance Corps, said Debbie Gorish, advisor for the Junior Corps.
Scholarship eligibility requires applicants to be graduating seniors accepted into a college, trade school or technical program leading to a career in health or emergency services. They must have demonstrated achievement in adversity, heroism or done at least 50 hours of community service in the past year. They should live in the Warwick Volunteer Ambulance District or be a member of the Junior Corps.
The scholarship commemorates Katherine Ball, born in 1956, a 17-year member of the Warwick EMS Corps and president, when she died of cancer.