Community: Optimists reward seniors heading to college

The Burbank Magnolia Optimist Club has given a financial boost to several graduating seniors on their way to college through its scholarship programs.

Each year, the club presents the Bill Flora Basketball Scholarship in memory of the group’s longtime dedicated member. His buddy Jim Lloyd remembered Flora was a great athlete himself and excelled in basketball and baseball. He later became a math teacher as well as a basketball and baseball coach at Burroughs.

In his memory, a senior is considered for this honor if he or she is a good athlete, especially in basketball, has a 3.5 or greater grade-point average and gives time to the community, Lloyd added.

This year’s recipient is Sidney Ortega, who will be attending UCLA. When she was a freshman, she played on the junior varsity basketball team and received the Most Valuable Player Award. She then played on the varsity team the next three years and was part of the team that qualified for the play-offs. She was a scholar athlete all four years and also academic player of the year. Her collective grade-point average is 4.5.

Another financial award the club gives is the Meet the Challenge Scholarship, which is given to students who have overcome obstacles at school or at home and have achieved success. Those recipients were Alondra Ramirez of Burroughs High, Clarissa Irizarry and Linda Reyes Echeverria, both of Monterey High School, and Dalia Romero of Burbank High.

In addition, the club gave several academic scholarships. They went to Jaime Lee, Minjoo Rho, Marco Rivera and Viva Parsa, all of Burbank High; Nathaniel Low, Brian Kaplun and Jinoo Han, all of Burroughs High; Jocelyn Salvador-Jacob of Bellarmine-Jefferson High and Maryanne Amour, of Providence High.
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JOYCE RUDOLPH can be contacted at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com.