Wins D.A.R. award
Michaela Reynolds is the D.A.R. Good Citizen Award Winner for Emporia High School for the 2008 year. Reynolds, a senior, is the daughter of Dr. Michael and Joyce Reynolds.
The D.A.R. held a luncheon last month at the American Legion in Michaela’s honor. She received the D.A.R. Good Citizen Award Certificate and pin, along with a gift of a $100 U.S. Savings Bond from the Emporia chapter.
Reynolds also has written a Scholarship Essay which has been entered in the D.A.R. State Good Citizens Award Contest.
Testifies in Topeka
Rhonda Moreland of Americus testified Wednesday afternoon before the Kansas Senate Ways and Means Committee in Topeka.
Moreland, testifying on behalf of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, talked about her experiences during a two-year period when she and her family had no health insurance.
“I’m talking about what it was like to not be on health insurance and what I went through,” Moreland said Wednesday morning. “How the mental health center wrote off $10,000 to $15,000 for me because I couldn’t pay it.”
Her daughter, who is diagnosed as severely emotionally disabled, accumulated an $18,000 hospital bill during that time.
“The mental health center has helped me recover, and I’m on the board of directors for the mental health center committee and NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness),” Moreland said.
“It was because of the grants that they had that they could do that. ... (T)hey want to take $15.9 million, take it out of the budget, and take it away from the mental health centers.”
Moreland’s testimony was to encourage senators to continue funding at least at the current level.
Honor society
Brieanna Baxter, a 2007 graduate of Emporia High School, was recently inducted into Alpha Gamma Upsilon chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, an international honor society of two-year colleges.
She attends Cowley County Community College in Arkansas City and has a 4.0 grade point average. She is the daughter of Gloria Baxter of Emporia and Steve Baxter of Wichita.
On dean’s list
Hallie Kretsinger was named to the fall 2007 Dean’s List at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
She completed 14 hours and earned a grade point average of 3.5 or above. She is the daughter of W. Brock and Mary Kretsinger of Emporia.