Self-Reliance Award top winners named

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Lincolnview senior Matt Allmandinger continued what has become a family tradition as he was named the top boy winner during Tuesday’s R.K. Thompson Self-Reliance Awards Dinner at Vantage Career Center. Kala East of Van Wert was named the top girl winner.

Allmandinger is the third member of his family to win top Self-Reliance Award honors. His father, David, won in 1985 as a senior at what was then Ohio City-Liberty High School, and a great-uncle, Terry Allmandinger, also an OC-L senior, was the boy winner in 1979.

“It’s kind of a cool trend,” Matt Allmandinger said of the fact that three family members have won the prestigious award (click here for more photos of the event).

Tuesday’s dinner was the 41st edition of an annual event that honors high school seniors who have done the best with what they have, to paraphrase a slogan the late Roger K. Thompson Jr. coined when he created the local program back in 1970.

The Self-Reliance Award program is based on a Middletown program that impressed Thompson while he was working in that city. He developed his own version here to honor his father, the late R.K. Thompson, a former president of Kennedy Manufacturing Company who was very involved in youth activities in the community.

The younger Thompson followed in his father’s footsteps, both at the helm of Kennedy and his involvement in Boy Scouts and other youth organizations.

In addition to East, girl finalists for this year’s awards included Toni Aquaviva, Megan Lawson and Rebecca Ries, all of Van Wert, and Jessica Burger of Crestview, while the other boy finalists, in addition to Allmandinger, included Anthony Hauter, Nate Simson and Kevin Yeung, all of Van Wert, and Joseph Overmyer of Crestview.

As is the case every year, each of the finalists’ life stories provided inspiration to those who attended the event, as members of the Van Wert Service Club read off example after example of how each of the seniors overcame adversity and challenges to be successful in school and their communities. Each finalist not only works part-time, but also is successful academically and involved in community service groups and activities.

“It’s very exciting, something new to see,” said East of Tuesday’s event.

Allmandinger agreed. “I think it’s really neat that a lot of important people from the community came out to support the youth the way they do,” he said. “It shows they really care.”

East shows her self-reliance in her daily life, working part-time at Orchard Tree Restaurant, while also being named captain of the varsity soccer team at Van Wert and belonging to the school Beta Club chapter. East also volunteers with the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army and is involved in the LifeHouse youth group.

To her, self-reliance is “being able to fend for myself and do whatever I can do to support myself.”

Allmandinger, who started his own custom baling business at the age of 16, not only is involved in many school and community groups, including FFA, Industrial Tech Club, and the Van Wert County Junior Fair Board, but is also a member of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, a Junior Rotarian and is a volunteer with the Ohio City Fire Department. He plans to commute to the Lima campus of The Ohio State University majoring in ag business, while also continuing to operate his baling business and help out on the family farm.

To Allmandinger, self-reliance encompasses many things. “Being self-reliant is being self-sufficient, and not only serving myself, but also helping the community, benefiting the community as much as possible and working to the best of your ability.”

All 10 of this year’s Self-Reliance Award finalists could have found inspiration in the story told by featured speaker Bob Ulm. Ulm, a veteran Delphos radio personality and president of Delphos City Council, was also blinded when 11 months old by a rare form of cancer.

His humorous, but often poignant talk echoed the theme of the Self-Reliance Awards banquet, doing your best and not making excuses, even though handicapped. It was a message that inspired all those who attended Tuesday’s event, as was evident by the standing ovation he received afterward.

In addition to the Thompson family, whose trust provides financial support for the awards, the members of Van Wert Service Club are also instrumental in the success of the event, since they do “the heavy lifting,” as David Thompson, son of founder Roger K. Thompson, noted in remarks that preceded the announcement of the top award winners. The service club does all the interviewing of applicants for the award and makes the final selection of the 10 finalists and the two top winners.

Each finalist received a $500 scholarship, with the top winners earning $1,000.