Hodgdon’s Griffin receives $500 scholarship

By Doug Dickinson
Staff Writer
    Paul Griffin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Brian Griffin of Hodgdon, has been selected to be the recipient of the Lewis Taavi Wirta Scholarship.
    Griffin was home-schooled and also went to Hodgdon High School. After graduating this year he plans to attend the University of Maine in Orono where he will be majoring in music education with a concentration on piano and organ performance. He hopes to go on to graduate school for a doctorate in piano.
Houlton Pioneer Times photo/Doug Dickinson
SCHOLARSHIP — Paul Griffin of Hodgdon, left, receives the Lewis Taavi Wirta Scholarship from SACAP President Robert Cowperthwaite.
    Griffin said it felt good receiving the award. “It’s a good accomplishment and it’s a lot of work paid off,” he said.
    Application information for the scholarship was provided to all area schools and home schooling parents. The criteria for selection was for the applicant to be a 2011 graduate with a 3.5 GPA minimum and two letters of recommendation.
    Robert Cowperthwaite is the President of SACAP (Southern Aroostook County Arts Program). He wants more students to apply for the scholarship.
    “I encourage people who will be graduating in 2012 and plan on going into some form of the arts to consider applying for the scholarship. We do not get a lot of applications and we will accept as many as we get and screen them,” said Cowperthwaite.
    Monies for the scholarship were raised through the sale of student art cards chosen from the Student Art Show submissions of 2010. Every year five pieces of student art are selected by a committee to be made into cards. These cards are sold at Visions Gallery in downtown Houlton for $1 each. Five hundred cards must be sold every year to cover the scholarship for the next year.