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LOCAL AUTHORS, INDEPENDENCE BANK PARTNER TO PROVIDE MESSAGE OF ACCEPTANCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

DCMS EARNS OUTSTANDING DELEGATION AWARD AT KY UNITED NATIONS ASSEMBLY

To help spread a message of acceptance and inclusion for Disability Awareness Month, Independence Bank partnered with local authors Amanda Owen and Ashley Wedding to provide copies of their children’s book Owen the Wonderer to local elementary schools.

The nearly $4,000 investment allows 25 schools to have 15 copies each of the book. A portion of that support will be donated to Puzzle Pieces, an Owensboro-based nonprofit that serves individuals with intellectual disabilities.

The book, which will be the first in a three-book series, focuses on 9-year-old Owen and his curiosity about the new student in his class, McKenzie, who he learns has Down syndrome. The young boy is full of questions and learns how to include his new classmate. In the end, Owen learns McKenzie is not very different from himself and the two become friends.

Owen and Wedding hope the book will be a resource for parents and teachers to begin conversations with their children and students about disabilities.

Two Daviess County Public Schools students served as Daily Pages in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Atley Thompson (a 5th-grader at Highland Elementary School) and Isabella “Bella” Skibba (a sophomore at Daviess County High School), represented DCPS in Frankfort.

Students in grades 5-12 across the state submitted applications and essays stating why they wanted to serve, along with letters of nomination from their teachers and school Family Resource/ Youth Service Centers coordinators.

The program is designed to provide students with hands-on, real-world experiences relating to social studies core content, while also spotlighting the role of FRYSCs in the educational process.

Addie Kate Keller, a 3rd-grader at Owensboro Catholic Elementary School, has battled dyslexia for much of her young life. Rather than viewing it as a disability, she’s used it as an inspiration to create a book that helps children process their emotions.

Keller said it could be difficult for children to process their emotions when they feel different and defeated. The book is titled Project YOUth and is full of strategies to help young people overcome the many challenges they face.

The book is available for purchase at RedBirdPress.net.

OHS SENIOR MATHER NAMED NATIONAL MERIT FINALIST

Owensboro High School senior Dylan Mather has been recognized as a finalist in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Competition.

Mather was among approximately 16,000 students nationwide who earned designation as National Merit semifinalists in September by earning some of the highest scores in their state on the Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Daviess County Middle School sent a delegation of 7th- and 8th-graders to the Kentucky United Nations Assembly in Louisville last weekend. They earned the Outstanding Delegation Award, the highest award of the conference, and their KUNA resolution was presented in front of the entire assembly.