Cary Grove chamber awards two scholarships

The Cary Grove Area Chamber of Commerce recently awarded two business scholarships to local students.

The scholarships are intended to encourage local students to pursue college interests that might impact area business.

"Over the years, the chamber has given away more than $20,000 in scholarship awards to local high school students who are pursing business related studies," said Chamber Executive Director Suzanne Corr.

This year's recipients of $1,000 scholarships each were Cary-Grove High School graduates Patrick Zito and Jessica Gronset.

Zito is an Illinois State Scholar and was captain of the business team, which won the Marquette University High School Competition. He will be attending Marquette this fall and majoring in biomedical engineering. Zito was drum major of the school's marching band for two years, first chair saxophone for the concert band, and a teacher's assistant for classes on computer skills and introduction to business.

He is an Eagle Scout, co-founded a student Christian group called The Uprising, and participated in the pit band, jazz band, speech team, basketball team, tennis team, Spanish club, school play and more.

For the past two years, Zito has been the emcee for the chamber's Cary Grove's Got Talent Competition during the Community Showcase.

Gronset is a National Honor Society member and captain of the Cary-Grove swim team. She was a member of the French Club and participated in the chamber's Miss Cary Business Scholarship Pageant in 2009.

Gronset is a member of her church's youth group and every summer has participated in mission trips to help other communities. She traveled to New Orleans where she worked with a team of students to help tear down and clean up people's homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

She works as a lifeguard at the Trout Valley pool, as a swim teacher at the Cary Park District, and as a cashier at Ace Hardware. She plans to study business at Illinois State University. Her dream is to open a restaurant in the area.

The chamber's scholarship fund is supported through donations from local business.

True Value Manufacturing is a major contributor to the scholarship fund. The chamber's annual garden walk is the largest fundraiser for the fund. For information on scholarship winners throughout the years, visit carygrovechamber.com.