Though much is different this year, the Pilot Mountain Ruritan Club recently continued an annual tradition with the August presentation of a $1,000 scholarship to a local graduate preparing to enter college.
Tripp Gilley was named as the club’s 2020 scholarship award winner. He is the son of James and Shasta Gilley of Pilot Mountain and is a recent graduate of Mount Airy High School. He is enrolled as a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
With the club not currently meeting, a ceremonial presentation was replaced by a meeting at Clyde Fulk Exxon, the Pilot Mountain Main Street business of club members Owen and Wanda Fulk.
“We’re absolutely pleased to name Tripp Gilley as our scholarship recipient,” said Pilot Mountain Ruritan Club Treasurer Wanda Fulk. “He’s a great selection, an outstanding student who is involved in a lot of school and community activities. He’s very active in his community.”
Gilley, 18, served as captain of the Mount Airy High School wrestling team and was a volunteer with the Mount Airy Mat Monsters, a youth wrestling club. He was a four-year member of the school’s HOSA Future Health Professionals student organization.
Gilley voiced appreciation to Mount Airy High School teacher and advisor Lynn Snow.
“She was always working with and for us to help make sure we had the connections we needed in our communities,” he said.
Other community involvement for Gilley included working with other members of his family multiple times each week in a local homeless ministry, Cross Training Ministries.
In late July, he hosted a successful American Red Cross blood drive at the South Westfield Ruritan Club.
“I was pleased with the results,” he said. “We met our goal. We were able to help save 75 lives and I got to meet a lot of interesting people. I think giving back in our community is the most important thing we can do.”
At UNC, Gilley is majoring in biology with a minor in Chinese. He hopes to continue to medical school with a goal of becoming a rheumatologist.
Gilley is enrolled at UNC but noted that with the campus shut down due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, he has just moved back into his Pilot Mountain home.
He voiced appreciation to the Pilot Mountain Ruritan Club and noted his own admiration of the Ruritan organization. He is a member of the South Westfield Ruritan Club.
“They’re great,” he said. “They’ve always been there to support me and my family. I love how they support their communities at a grass roots level.”
Organized in the mid-1970s, the Pilot Mountain Ruritan Club operates with the stated purpose of working “to enhance the quality of living for the total community.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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