Kiwanis Club of Paris-Brant presented its first ever Kiwanis Paul Thompson Service Scholarships during their monthly club meeting on Tuesday, August 11, 2025.
Sherin Dedo and Trudeau Gulati, both students from Paris District High School, attended the Kiwanis club meeting along with their family members to receive their scholarship awards.
During the meeting, Sheila Moore, club Treasurer, and Tim Risebrough, club President, presented each student with a $1,000 cheque and a certificate to recognize their accomplishments within the community.
“For students receiving our Kiwanis Paul Thomsson Service scholarship, they must demonstrate the following: community volunteerism beyond the mandatory 40 hours; respect for others, leadership skills; a spirit of teamwork through cooperation, engagement, generosity and unselfishness; and participation in extracurricular activities,” said Moore. “You’ll notice there was nothing in there for academics, and never will the criteria for our scholarships be driven by academics. This is a service scholarship, but what we find is the kind of young people that qualify for all these other things to get the high marks anyway.”
Both students will soon be heading off for their post-secondary education. Dedo will attend Brock University and Gulanti will attend University of Toronto.
Afterwards, Risebrough said that Paul Thomson, who was one of the founding members of the Paris-Brant Club and who the scholarship is named after, would have been proud of the two students and their accomplishments.
“We decided as a club, that for his profound community spirit throughout his whole life, that we could do something to honour him. I was thinking as the awards were being presented, how much Paul would have loved to see the two of you up here,” said Risebrough. “He would have been so proud of both of you and so in his spirit, I want to thank you both for being part of our process, and I really hope we continue to find other wonderful people like yourself every year because it really makes it feel like it’s worth it for us.”
The Kiwanis Club of Paris-Brant is made up of like-minded volunteers whose objective is to give back to the local community and support children through a diverse range of activities and fundraisers.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
