Winners of several scholarships in the region recently have been announced.

Nick Woviotis Memorial Scholarships

Typically the Nick Woviotis Memorial Scholarships are presented at a dinner at the Italian Dramatic Club in New London but, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no dinner this year. Nevertheless, the scholarship committee elected to make the awards.

Mary Catherine Madaus of The Williams School and Jacob Tukey of East Lyme High are the co-recipients of the 37th Nick Woviotis Memorial Scholarship Award. Each will receive a $2,500 cash award and will receive $1,000 each year during their college career and a watch donated by Mallove Jewelers upon graduation.

To date, over $300,000 in scholarships have been awarded and over 90% of the recipients have graduated.

Due to COVID-19, the committee also has elected to grant four one-time special awards of $1,500 each. The recipients are as follows: Nikolas Zingus of Waterford High School; Sophia Videll of Saint Bernard High School; Amy Pinch of Waterford High School and Connor Podeszwa of Waterford High School.

Other recipients who will be receiving awards are: John Christopher Madden of New London High School; Allynna Grills of Groton Marine Science Magnet School; Kevin Ruiz of New London High School; Emily Smith of Saint Bernard High School; Victoria Hannaford of Saint Bernard High School; Ki-Shan Pemberton of New London High School and Cole Potts of Saint Bernard High School.

Running scholarships

Separately, Robert E. Fitch High School runners have been awarded scholarships.

Kathryn Barnes and Simon Chidley, both runners and graduating seniors at the school in Groton, have been awarded $1,500 scholarships by the John J. Kelley Memorial Fund. Barnes plans to attend Carnegie Mellon University, while Chidley will attend Wesleyan University. The awards were presented June 3 by Jim Roy, chairman of the memorial fund.

The scholarships are awarded annually to Fitch seniors who exhibit kindness and good sportsmanship, attributes exemplified by Kelley, a former Fitch teacher and cross country coach who won the Boston Marathon in 1957 and competed twice in the Olympics.