Ethel The Wonder Cow Supports Ione Area Scholarships
Ethel is the wonder cow because for at least the last 12 years she has helped The Rotary Club of Ione raise thousands of dollars for area scholarships and educational programs.
Ione Rotarian's Jake Herfel, Larry Costick, Tom Bamert, George Lambert, Rick Kreth, Donna Ogelvie, Judy Finch, and Jerry Cassesi with Ethel the wonder cow prepare to march in Ione’s Homecoming Parade. Photo by Richard Forster
. Every year Ethel’s owner Supervisor Richard Forster debates whether she is healthy enough to walk through the parade one more time and each year she has risen to the task.
After the expenses of this year’s event $7,500 will be distributed for scholarships and school programs over the next 12 months.
This year four scholarships of $1,250 each went to Argonaut High School students: Lesli Bryan, Thomas Hoyle, Zach Lujan, and Breahna Roberts. Ione Homecoming’s Miss Ione contest winners and other events are also supported through grants to the Ione Picnic Association. Each year we send two Argonaut juniors to Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp at a cost of $750 each. Recently we have begun sharing the $1,500 cost of sending five Ione Middle School students to Rotary Eighth Grade Leadership (REGL) camp with the Plymouth-Foothill Rotary Club. Another $1,800 to $2,000 in educational support goes to the Ione Elementary School in the form of pictorial dictionaries given to each third grader, the Kids Homecoming Parade and Mr. Robin Masterton’s violin program, which provides free violins to committed musicians.
Thank you citizens for supporting Ione Rotary’s fundraisers.