Students honored at Kiwanis banquet
PRESCOTT – There was plenty of cause for celebration Monday night at the Kiwanis Club’s Honor’s Banquet.
Students were recognized for their academic achievements, with Katie Tyree being named the winner of the club’s $500 scholarship.
The evening began with Glenn Vasser, club member, talking about the club and how he’s been a member of the local organization since it formed in 1972. He told how Prescott High School’s athletes were honored in the 1970s for their accomplishments and how the Kiwanis Club decided to do something for the academic achievements of the students.
Vasser introduced the featured speaker, John Dan Kemp, Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, saying Kemp is from Mountain View and holds the highest judicial office in the state. He gave Kemps’ bona fides, talking about his graduating from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1976, being the only lawyer in Mountain Home and being appointed Municipal Judge there.
Kemp congratulated the students saying it take a lot of hard work to achieve good grades. He told those gathered there were three things they need to focus on: motivation, limitation and creativity.
Motivation, he said, is what drives us to accomplish our goals, such as getting good grades. Kemp told how he decided to become a lawyer, being motivated after feeling powerless when he was cited after a traffic mishap. “It’s funny how we’re motivated sometimes, and it can be hard to figure out.”
Some, he said, are self-motivated, while others are motivated simply to prove people who say they can’t do something wrong. The reason people are motivated, he continued, can be either negative or positive.
As to limitations, Kemp said, they can be what we place on ourselves or what others place on us based on their expectations of what we can do. “You won’t know what your limits are until you go beyond them. You can accomplish more than other people think. Exceed your limits and set new ones for yourself.
On the topic of creativity, he told the students they were entering what could be the most creative period of their lives. He listed several successful people, saying they created what made them a success in their 20s to mid 30s. He cited such people as DaVinci, Steve Jobs and Beethoven.
“Nothing can stop you from creating anything,” he said. “You have the talent and ability and hopefully the determination. Prove people wrong when they you can’t do something.”
Robert Poole, superintendent of the Prescott School District, presented a plaque to PHS bearing the names of the students honored by the Kiwanis Club. He said this plaque will hang on the halls at PHS for people to see when they visit. “This is something you can be proud of.
Barry Barber, club treasurer, said the Kiwanis isn’t a single club, but is a family of clubs for people of all ages. For high school students, he said, there is the Key Club and it’s the oldest such club for teens in the world. The PHS Key Club, he told the audience, has two official functions during the year. One is they clean up Ron Harrod Blvd. annually, but the signature project is the club’s annual Christmas party for disadvantaged youth. Barber recognized the club’s officers and named Tyree as the recipient of the club’s annual scholarship.
Entertainment was provided by the PHS jazz ensemble.