Showing creativity is one way students tend to express themselves. With this idea in mind, a scholarship opportunity has risen for select students. 

The City of Wentzville Parks and Recreation Department is offering a $750 scholarship to each school’s winner. 

Now what is this scholarship? This scholarship is very unique, students who are selected and who filled out the application are given a real life-sized fire hydrant to paint and design. Art students Shaun Dobratz (12), Callahan Altheimer (12), and Myan Huynh (12) were selected as this year’s participants. 

One of the winners, Huynh, talked about how excited she was about the scholarship.

“I feel like I can be an inspiration to others,” Huynh said. 

This year’s theme for the fire hydrant has been selected as an Earth Element theme. The deadline for this project remains to be determined as the art department for each district gets to decide their own deadline. 

After each student is done painting their hydrant, the The City of Wentzville Parks and Recreation Department will select a winner and that winner’s fire hydrant will be displayed at downtown Wentzville in the caboose. 

“They do this so that the City of Wentzville can display them so that everybody can see what’s going on in our community, so they can get community involvement in what students are working on,” Art teacher, Carrie Middendorf said. 

After the winner is chosen, the scholarship will not be handed to the student directly. The university or college they commit to will receive the scholarship under his or her name. If the winner fails to select a college, the second place winner will then be given the opportunity for the scholarship. 

The City of Wentzville does this scholarship each year to showcase the community, especially among high school students.