Petty and Burroughs Win Dern Memorial Scholarships

2007 Dern Scholarship winners Patric Petty and Jane Burroughs 

Patrick Petty of Fort Plain and Jane Burroughs of Amsterdam have been named winners of the Fulmont Roadrunners Club’s 2007 James R. Dern Memorial Scholarships.  The athletes received their $500 awards in ceremonies following the club’s Mule Haul road race.
 
Patrick, the son of James and Lisa Petty, was graduated this year from Fort Plain High School, where he was a four-year member of the varsity track and cross-country teams. He will be attending Union College in the fall, majoring in biology/pre-med.  He would like to become a physician.
 
Jane, the daughter of James and Laura Burroughs, is a graduate of Fonda-Fultonville High, where she competed in indoor and outdoor track, and spent her senior year at Fulton-Montgomery Community College as an early admission student.  She will be studying business administration at the State University of New York Institute of Technology and is looking forward to a career in management.  
 
Patrick and Jane are the 25th and 26th recipients of the scholarship that bears the name of the late Jim Dern, a Canajoharie resident, Beech-Nut executive, and longtime running enthusiast and Fulmont Roadrunners Club member.  The scholarships are awarded to college-committed high school seniors who have competed in varsity running programs for at least two years. Applicants are judged on work ethic, leadership skills, sportsmanship, commitment to running team goals, and respect of peers.
 
With this year’s awards, more than $12,000 in scholarships have been granted to young men and women from eight area high schools. The awards program was begun in 1995.