Richey, Stevens Self-Reliance winners

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

As it has been for more than four decades, Tuesday evening’s R.K. Thompson Self-Reliance Award Banquet was “all about the kids.” That’s the phrase Roger K. Thompson Jr. always used in describing the event he founded back in 1971 to honor his father, Roger K. Thompson Sr.

Thompson wasn’t talking about just any kids, either, but those who do the most with what they have. Tuesday’s event, held in the new commons area of Vantage Career Center, again showcased 10 Van Wert County high school seniors (five girls and five boys) who have already done amazing things with the resources they were given.

Topping the list were the boy and girl winning finalists, who this year were Abigail Richey, a Lincolnview High School senior and the daughter of Patrick Richey and Summer Vettori, and Nate Stevens, son of Ed and Vicki Stevens and a senior at Van Wert High School.

Both said they were happy to receive the honor, which also carries with it $1,000 in scholarship money.

“I was very surprised and very happy that all my hard work paid off,” Richey said, noting that the honor was recognition she had accomplished something so far in her life.

Stevens also said he was happy to earn the award, noting that he though he was maybe at least in the top three finalists, but didn’t know about being the winner. For him, the award was a confirmation that he had “really done all that I can to the best of my ability.”

Both finalists have goals for the future. Richey plans to earn a degree in physical therapy, while Stevens said he wants to pursue a degree in industrial design at the University of Cincinnati.

The other eight finalists — Bethany Army, Elizabeth Callow, Rachael Gent and Crystal Morgan for the girls and Daniel Bashore, Dallis Gibson, Robert Laing and Jose Quevas, for the boys — each received $500 in scholarship money from the Thompson Family Trust.

Speaker Joel Penton, an outstanding athlete at both Van Wert High School and as a defensive lineman for the Ohio State Buckeyes, repeated some of the things reviewers said about the 10 R.K. Thompson finalists during his talk, noting that a true indication of someone’s accomplishments are what others say about that person.

“Those are amazing things for someone else to say about you,” Penton told the finalists, adding that he wanted to leave them with just two things:

“Number 1, let me just encourage you to continue on the road that you are on,” Penton noted. “As you move on to the next stage of life, there’s going to be so many people, so many things, so many temptations that are going to try to pull you off of this road of self-reliance and I would just encourage you to stay the course … stand your ground, follow through, keep your commitments.”

His second bit of advice was more in the nature of a warning for the finalists of the danger of becoming “merely” self-reliant, with Penton adding that sometimes self-reliant people can become unwilling, or even unable to accept help from others.

Penton said one thing he loved about football was the teamwork involved. “Every single day I had to depend on my teammates and my teammates had to depend on me,”

“No matter what stage of life you are in you will always be a part of teams, whether it’s your family, your friends, classmates, co-workers, you will always need to rely on others as others rely on you,” Penton told the Self-Reliance finalists.

Penton ended his speech with a poem the Buckeye football team recited before every game:

“I am only one, but I am one, I can’t do everything, but I can do something, and that I can do, I ought to do, and what I ought to do, by the grace of God I shall do.”