Perry County foundation awards $64,680 in scholarships to 22 students

The Perry County Community Foundation awarded $64,680 in scholarships to 22 local students through its Community Scholarship Program, sending donor-backed aid to students from Tell City High School, Perry Central High School and Cannelton Jr. High School.

The awards were presented through a network of donor-established scholarship funds, each with its own eligibility criteria. Recipients were recognized at the Rise & Shine Scholars event in April with fund founders, recipients and parents. Donors can create scholarships in honor of loved ones, communities, schools, colleges or professions, and local committees handle selection, with donors able to take part in the process.

Among the recipients were Ally Franchville, Justin French, Andrew Noble and Mackenzie Straneva through the Birch and Ruth Shafer Scholarship; Charles Guillaume through the Buehler Foods Scholarship; Gloria Sommer through both the Cecil and Olive Foster Scholarship and the Earl and Hazel Etienne Scholarship; Summer Guillaume through the Charles S. and Rose H. Paulin Scholarship, the Edgar and Evelyn Whitcomb Scholarship and the York Family Scholarship; and Tyler Kleaving through the Gene and Christina Schwindel Scholarship, the Old National Tell City Scholarship and the Perry County 4-H Scholarship.

Tila Jones received the Harriet and Don Neill Perry County Values Scholarship; Brianna Evans and Taylor Hagman received separate J. Matthew Moore Memorial Scholarship awards; Joseph Cunningham received the Mark Flash Kleeman Memorial Scholarship; Lance Kern and Lexi Lain received the Mildred Wempe Memorial Scholarship; Claire Daugherty and Gage Garrett received the Loren and Bernice Lanman Scholarship; Payton Moskos received the Perry County FOP Scholarship; Lucas Cail received the Robert Ress Memorial Scholarship; Aaron Hilgenhold received the Sam K. Oberhausen Memorial Scholarship and Zachary Kleemann Memorial Scholarship; Myah Cummings received the Sam Reed Scholarship; Alexis Fulton received the Stacey Peak Memorial Scholarship and Ross Morgan received the Wendell Werner and Loretta Werner Scholarship.

The foundation named Aniksha Kashyab of Tell City High School as Perry County’s 2026 Lilly Endowment Community Scholar, part of a program offered in the county for 29 years. Some awards are tied directly to career paths, including law, education and medicine, while other funds carry purposes linked to electrical repair and public service.

Perry County Community Foundation, established in 1987, uses a local volunteer network and the Community Foundation Alliance to help administer county affiliates and turn donor gifts into annual scholarship and grant distributions. This year’s scholarship total topped the foundation’s 2025 award of more than $63,000 to 26 students and 2024’s $57,750, while remaining below the 2023 total of $78,200.