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Students recognized as Judge’s Scholars; HCHS students and volunteers build urns for unclaimed veterans
Summary
The board honored two Judge’s Scholars — Addison Baskett of Niagara Elementary and Anna Carrier of Henderson County High School — and recognized a community partnership in which HCHS carpentry and JROTC students helped build urns and participate in a burial service for unclaimed veterans.
The Henderson County Board of Education honored student achievements and recognized a community partnership at its May 19 meeting.
Niagara Elementary student Addison Baskett and Henderson County High School student Anna Carrier were presented as the county’s Judge’s Scholars. School staff described their academic records, leadership roles and extracurricular involvement; Carrier will attend the University of Evansville and pursue actuarial science and pre-law coursework, the board noted.
The board also spotlighted a partnership involving Fred and Claudia Benke and Henderson County High School students. The Bennkes, who the meeting identified as Kentucky volunteers with the Michigan America Project, said the district’s carpentry students made four handcrafted wooden urns that were used to inter unclaimed remains at the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery West in Hopkinsville. Ten JROTC cadets participated in the interment ceremony. Fred Benke said the organization locates and identifies unclaimed remains and coordinates burial and paperwork with the VA.
“We are the only Kentucky volunteers for the Michigan America Project where we locate, identify, and in turn, unclaim remains of veterans, their dependents, and their spouses,” Fred Benke said. He told the board the carpentry and JROTC classes want to continue making and donating urns to veteran cemeteries and that his wife does the engraving for the urns.
Why it matters: The district highlighted the arrangement as an example of hands-on career and technical education and community service — students applied carpentry and JROTC skills in a project intended to provide dignity in burial for veterans without family representation.
The board presented certificates and invited family members and school staff to photos following recognitions.
