LIMA — Striving for perfect attendance is usually not a priority for a high school student. However, if you attend Apollo Career Center and maintain perfect attendance, you may walk away with a car.
“We try to relate to what industry does on attendance bonuses,” said Nick Earl, dean of students at Apollo Career Center.
Apollo has been giving away a car for about 15 years. The car is donated and then the two auto programs fix it up.
Many of Apollo’s students strive hard to maintain their perfect attendance, which is for 180 days. And by perfect attendance, this means they have no excused or unexcused absences and no tardiness.
“I actually had to send one student home this year, he was so sick I thought he was going to pass out,” Earl said.
This year Apollo had 18 students entered in the drawing for perfect attendance.
“Three of the students had their names in twice because they have had perfect attendance for two years,” Earl said.
The awards ceremony and student assembly was held Wednesday morning in the commons.
A reverse raffle system was held for the 18 students who qualified with perfect attendance. Each student with one year of perfect attendance put his or her name in a drawing. Students with two years receive two chances. Each student’s name is put into a basket, and as the names are pulled out, they are awarded gift certificates, pizzas, gas cards, etc. from area businesses who have donated to Apollo. The final two students whose names have not been pulled are handed a set of keys, with only one key that starts the car.
The final two students this year were 16-year-old Aviona Van Waning and 19-year-old Cole Beebe.
Beebe was the first behind the wheel of the car. His key did not start the engine.
Aviona slipped into the driver seat, put her key in the ignition, and the car started right up.
Aviona’s home school is Allen East. She is a sophomore at Apollo in the career exploration class. She will be a junior next year in Apollo’s construction equipment class.
She was surprised when she realized she won the car.
“I don’t know, I was expecting not to win,” she said.
She does not have her license, and is in no hurry to get her license even after winning the car. She was in a hurry to call her dad.
Beebe, of Spencerville, is a senior this year in Apollo’s welding class. While he was disappointed in not winning the car, he was more than happy with his laptop computer, donated by VTG.
“I have to use my girlfriend’s car for work, so I was hoping to win the car. But this computer is really good too,” Beebe said.
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
