OKC Beautiful to honor those helping to create better community

OKC Beautiful’s annual Distinguished Service Awards is an opportunity to recognize individuals and organizations working to improve the beauty and environmental sustainability of Oklahoma City.

The individuals and groups being honored represent those in Oklahoma City working to create a more beautiful and sustainable community. The Distinguished Service Awards Luncheon will be

See AWARDS, Page 12

Our students up for Presidential Scholars

Eleven students from Fridayland schools have been named candidates in the 2023 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. They are among 5,000 Presidential Scholars from across the nation.

Our students are, listed by their schools:

Bishop McGuinness — Charles Rhodes and Curt Schwager.

Casady School — Connor Evans, Michelle Huang, Julia Janknecht, Jenna Jiang and Olivia Wang.

Classen School of Advanced Studies — Danny Ly and Semony Shah.

Crossings Christian School —

Lucas J. Lindsey.

Heritage Hall — Braden A. Perkins.

The candidates were selected from nearly 3.6 million students expected to graduate from U.S. high schools in the year 2023.

Inclusion in the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program is one of the highest honors bestowed upon graduating high school seniors. Scholars are selected on the basis of superior academic and artistic achievements, leadership qualities, strong character and involvement in community and See SCHOLARS, Page 7

9-year-old keeps local parks neat

By Rose Lane Editor

Nine-year-old Maevyn Bruemmer can often be seen picking up trash in local parks.

For her efforts in keeping areas clean for kids to play,

Oklahoma City Beautiful is presenting her the Volunteer Spirit Award during its March 23 luncheon.

Maevyn, who has autism, is the daughter of Kelli and Bobby Bruemmer. She is in See MAEVYN, Page 12

Juliette Low Leadership Society lunch raises $400k

Girl Scouts Western Oklahoma’s Juliette Low Leadership Society raised $398,785 during its 19th annual luncheon at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Proceeds from the event, which this year was themed “Building Brighter Futures,” help fund programming and scholarships to enable Girl Scouting across central and western Oklahoma.

Debbie Sterling, founder and CEO of the award-winning children’s multimedia company GoldieBlox, served as keynote speaker.

Known for disrupting the pink aisle in toy stores globally, GoldieBlox challenged gender stereotypes with the world’s first girl engineer character. Since launching in 2012 as a prototype on Kickstarter, the company has sold more than one million toys through 6,000-plus major worldwide retailers.

In 2014 alone, GoldieBlox was named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company and received the Toy Industry Association Educational Toy of the Year honor.

Sterling, who earned her engineering degree from Stanford in 2005, is widely acknowledged as a leader in getting girls involved in STEM, having partnered with Girl Scouts to create badges for accomplishments in STEM fields.

Sterling’s mission to empower girls made her the perfect choice to deliver the luncheon message, said Janienne Bella, CEO of Girl Scouts Western Oklahoma.

“Her passion mirrors Girl Scouts’ goal to introduce more young women to science, technology, engineering and math,” she said. “We hope to inspire our youth to become the next generation of female leaders in these fields.”

Nedra Funk, a co-founder of Express Employment Professionals, was recognized as this year’s honorary chair. Funk has been active in the Juliette Low Leadership Society since its founding.

Co-chairmen for the luncheon were Brooke Haneborg and Kathy Frankenfield.