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By Marie Greene | Community Columnist

Every year, Lake Mitchell HOBO (Home Owners and Boat Owners) awards scholarships to two local high school graduates from Chilton County or Coosa County. Applicants for the scholarships must complete a set of requirements, including participation in one of the bi-annual Lake Mitchell cleanups sponsored jointly by Alabama Power Company and Lake Mitchell HOBO.

The 2023 HOBO scholarship applicants who participated in the spring clean-up at Lake Mitchell on May13 were Marissa Pierce and Olivia Childress from Chilton County, and Nehemiah Sanders and Cade Shurette from Coosa County. These four local high school students, (plus Olivia’s mom) and HOBO Scholarship Sponsor Marie Butts boarded the Alabama Power boat at Higgins Ferry boat launch. Their boat, along with other boatloads of Lake Mitchell residents, spread out across the lake to remove trash and debris.

At noon, all of the boats returned to Higgins Ferry to deposit hundreds of pounds of trash they had collected. Then, everyone celebrated their efforts with a hotdog lunch in the pavilion. The event ended as Olivia and Marissa helped Clean-up Chairman Dale Vann draw for $25 gift certificates.

HOBO Scholarship Chairman Marie Butts announced Monday the winners of the 2023 Lake Mitchell HOBO Scholarships. The winners are Nehemiah Sanders and Ethan Traywick. Each student will receive $2000 to be used at the school of their choice.

Sanders attended Central High School of Coosa County and plans to attend UAB and major in computer science.

Ethan Traywick is graduating from Thorsby High School and plans to attend the University of Montevallo and major in nursing.

Best wishes to all of our outstanding applicants and congratulations to Nehemiah and Ethan.